In December 2021, Choi, 76, was sentenced to one year in prison for forging a financial document used in a land purchase deal in Seongnam, a satellite city of Seoul, in 2013. The forged document suggested she had deposited 34.7 billion won ($27 million) into the account, the report said. She was not arrested then.
The appeals court confirmed Friday the lower court's ruling due to "the gravity of the crime," having found Choi guilty of producing a fake bank balance certificate and using it to purchase the property, the media reported.
After hearing the court's verdict, Choi said she was innocent and passed out, the report said.
Choi had previously been charged with illegally operating a long-term care hospital for the elderly without a medical license in 2013 and accepting 2.29 billion won in state benefits from South Korea's National Health Insurance Service until 2015 together with three partners and had initially been sentenced to three years in prison, but was acquitted of charges in December 2022.