South Korea’s Seoul Central District Court late on 12 August issued, and immediately executed, an arrest warrant for former first lady Kim Keon Hee after concluding she could destroy evidence in an ongoing corruption investigation. Kim, 52, was transferred to the Seoul Southern Detention Center shortly after the ruling, becoming the first ex-first lady in the nation’s history to be taken into custody. The special prosecutor’s office alleges Kim reaped about 800 million won ($580,000) by taking part in a stock-price rigging scheme linked to a BMW dealership and received luxury gifts—including a Van Cleef pendant reportedly worth 60 million won and two Chanel bags valued at roughly 20 million won—as bribes for political favors. Investigators also cite suspected meddling in 2022 parliamentary by-elections. Her lawyers deny all wrongdoing. Kim’s detention means both she and her husband, impeached former president Yoon Suk Yeol, are now behind bars. Yoon has been jailed since July on insurrection and abuse-of-power charges stemming from a short-lived attempt to impose martial law last December, making the couple the first former presidential pair to be simultaneously imprisoned. Prosecutors say they will decide on a formal indictment once additional evidence is reviewed. The raft of charges—capital-markets violations, bribery and influence peddling—carry potential multi-year prison sentences. Kim offered no public statement as she arrived for the hours-long warrant hearing, aside from a brief apology for “causing concern.”