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Photo = Yonhap news |
[Alpha Biz= Kim Jisun] Seoul, July 14, 2025 — CEOs from several major South Korean corporations — including Brian Kim, founder of Kakao, Kim Ik-rae, former chairman of Daou Kiwoom Group, and Cho Hyun-sang, chairman of HS Hyosung — are set to be summoned by special prosecutor Min Jung-ki’s investigation team in connection with the growing ‘Butler Gate’ scandal involving former First Lady Kim Keon-hee.
Special Prosecutor’s Office spokesperson Oh Jung-hee announced on Sunday that CEOs and executives from Korea Securities Finance Corporation, HS Hyosung, Kakao Mobility, and Kiwoom Securities had been notified of their summons for this week. Investigators are examining potential breach of fiduciary duty in relation to a ₩18.4 billion (approx. USD 13.3 million) investment channeled into IMS Mobility, a rental car company suspected to be a shell company with ties to Kim Keon-hee.
Summonses have been issued for Brian Kim, Kim Ik-rae, Cho Hyun-sang, and Yoon Chang-ho, former CEO of Korea Securities Finance, to appear on July 17.
The scandal centers on Mr. Kim, widely referred to as the “butler,” who fled to Vietnam in April after allegations emerged that he used his alleged relationship with the former First Lady to fraudulently attract large-scale investments into IMS Mobility — despite it being a financially distressed company.
₩4.6 billion of the investment was used to acquire a 4.64% stake in IMS Mobility from Innovest Korea, matching the stake Mr. Kim reportedly transferred to the company in late 2022. Investigators suspect that the money may have ultimately flowed back to Mr. Kim and are investigating his wife, the sole registered executive of Innovest, to determine whether the firm was a nominee entity for Mr. Kim.
Special counsel Oh urged Mr. Kim and his wife to return to Korea and cooperate with the investigation. He added that the team is looking into whether this case mirrors past instances of quid-pro-quo corporate sponsorship, such as the Kovana Contents exhibition sponsorship case.
In a related development, the special counsel is expected to file arrest warrants for key figures in the Sambu Construction stock manipulation case, and also announced a large-scale raid on ten government-related locations, including the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT), Korea Expressway Corporation, and engineering firms Donghae Engineering & Consultants and Kyungdong Engineering, over alleged favoritism in the Yangpyeong Expressway route change case.
AlphaBIZ Kim Jisun(stockmk2020@alphabiz.co.kr)
