Special counsel team to announce final results of corruption probe into ex-first lady

Special counsel Min Joong-ki and his team were set to announce the final results of their 180-day investigation into corruption allegations surrounding former first lady Kim Keon Hee on Monday after their mandated term came to an end. Since its launch in July, Min's team has focused on three key suspicions — Kim's alleged involvement in a stock price manipulation scheme, her alleged acceptance of free opinion polls from a self-proclaimed power broker and her suspected receipt of luxury gifts from the Unification Church. Over the course of the investigation, the team placed 20 people, including Kim, under custody and indicted a total of 66 people, including Kim and her husband, ousted former President Yoon Suk Yeol. Specifically, Kim is accused of conspiring with a former head of Deutsch Motors, a BMW dealer in Korea, as well as a close associate, to manipulate the company's stock price and make 810 million won ($561,000) in illegal profits between 2010 and 2012. She is also accused of receiving free opinion polls worth 270 million won, together with her husband, from the power broker a