Chungju: A key figure in a stock price manipulation case allegedly involving former first lady Kim Keon Hee was taken into custody Thursday, prosecutors said. The suspect, identified only by his surname Lee, was arrested at around 4:09 p.m. near a highway rest area in the central city of Chungju, 130 kilometers southeast of Seoul, following a joint operation with police, the special counsel Min Joong-ki's team said in a statement.

According to Yonhap News Agency, after questioning Lee, the team is expected to soon seek a court warrant for his formal detention. Authorities had been pursuing him with an arrest warrant after he went into hiding during the probe into the Deutsche Motors case. Lee is believed to have played a key role in the first phase of the alleged scheme to rig the stock price of Deutsche Motors, a BMW dealer in South Korea, between December 2009 and October 2010.

He reportedly managed a brokerage account belonging to Kim and introduced her to Jeon Seong-bae -- the jailed shaman known as "Geonjin," who is at the center of various corruption allegations involving the former first lady.