Seoul: Special Prosecutor Min Joong-ki's team investigating various allegations involving former first lady Kim Keon Hee requested an arrest warrant Friday for one of her associates for violating the Attorney-at-Law Act. The associate, Lee Jong-ho, former head of investment firm Blackpearl Invest, is known to have managed Kim's account in connection with a stock price manipulation case involving Deutsch Motors, a BMW dealer in South Korea.

According to Yonhap News Agency, Lee is suspected of receiving 81 million won (US$58,000) from a business partner between 2022 and 2023 in return for promising to use his connections with Kim to secure a suspended sentence for him in the stock price manipulation case that occurred between 2009 and 2012. Lee has reportedly denied the allegations.

Lee's arrest warrant hearing is scheduled to take place at the Seoul Central District Court at 10:30 a.m. next Tuesday.