President Yoon Seok-yeol's mother-in-law Loses Civil Lawsuit Confirming 'Balance Certificate Forgery'

Mother-in-law of President Yoon Seok-yeol, Choi Eun-soon [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] The Supreme Court has finalized a ruling in which Choi Eun-soon, the mother-in-law of President Yoon Seok-yeol, partially lost a civil lawsuit related to the 'forgery of a balance certificate.' The compensation Choi must pay amounts to approximately 490 million won.

According to the court on the 30th, the Supreme Court's First Division (Presiding Justice Oh Kyung-mi) recently dismissed the appeal without oral argument, thereby confirming the lower court's partial ruling in favor of businessman Im against Choi in a damages and check payment lawsuit. Dismissal without oral argument is a system where an appeal is rejected without substantive review if there is no significant legal error or special reason in the lower court's decision.

Previously, in 2014, Im lent approximately 1.65 billion won to Ahn, who was known as Choi's business partner, receiving five checking account checks issued in Choi's name as collateral. Im claimed that Ahn presented Choi's balance certificate when borrowing the money.

Choi, who had lent the checks to Ahn, later sent a certified letter demanding the return of the checks and reported the incident. When Im presented the checks to the bank and payment was refused, he filed a lawsuit against Choi.

During the trial, Im argued, "Choi gave Ahn the authority to change the issue date of the checks, and the money borrowed by Ahn using the checks as collateral was also used together."

The first trial court ruled in favor of Choi. Considering that Ahn was fined for altering the checks without Choi's permission, the court judged that it could not be recognized that Choi authorized Ahn to change the issue date of the checks.

The second trial court reversed the decision. It held that, given Choi had prepared a false balance certificate for Ahn, she should have foreseen Ahn's illegal use of the checks and was therefore liable for negligence by neglecting to prevent it.

Meanwhile, Choi was criminally prosecuted for forging and using a balance certificate to appear as if she had deposited about 34.9 billion won in a savings bank in four installments during April to October 2013, in the process of purchasing land in Dochon-dong, Jungwon-gu, Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province (charges include forgery and use of a private document and violation of the Real Name Real Estate Act). She was sentenced to one year in prison in the first trial, and the second trial is ongoing.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.