▲ Real estate (The photo above is not related to the contents of the article.)
In 2020, a 60-year-old private moneylender operator in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, surnamed A, planned a meticulous loan scam.
The targets of the crime were so-called "jeonju," investors looking to roll over and grow their money.
B, a 63-year-old who would recruit these investors, also joined in the crime.
They decided to misrepresent "zero-equity villas," where the purchase price and jeonse (lump-sum housing deposit) price are similar, as sound collateral to swindle investment funds.
In January of that same year, A's group carried out their first crime.
They lured the owner of a zero-equity villa in Anyang, Gyeonggi Province, intending to deceive investors into believing the villa was prime collateral with a "deposit of 30 million won and a monthly rent of 600,000 won."
They went so far as to secretly carve a seal of the tenant actually living under a jeonse lease to forge a monthly rent contract, and showed remarkable boldness by taking the fake contract to the court registry office to even obtain a fixed-date stamp.
They then sent a photo of the fake contract to an investor, deceiving them by saying, "Even if the deposit is deducted, the collateral value is sufficient, so if you lend us 100 million won, we will give you high interest."
Deceived by the collateral that appeared safe on paper, the investor wired 70 million won that very day.
Having succeeded in their crime, A's group joined hands in earnest with the owners of the zero-equity villas.
Villas across the metropolitan area, including Gangseo-gu, Geumcheon-gu, and Guro-gu in Seoul, Bupyeong-gu in Incheon, and Gimpo in Gyeonggi Province, were mobilized en masse for the crimes.
From May 2020 to August 2022, they fabricated fake monthly rent contracts 42 times and swindled approximately 4.48 billion won from 7 investors.
Among them, one victim was ripped off of a staggering 2.995 billion won by A's group.
Even after receiving protests from an investor who noticed the fake contract, B continued to recruit new investors, claiming, "If a problem arises, I will set up a collateral mortgage on my real estate."
Eventually caught, they were sent to trial side by side on charges including violation of the Act on the Aggravated Punishment, etc. of Specific Economic Crimes and fraud.
According to the legal community on the 15th, Criminal Division 1 of the Bucheon Branch of the Incheon District Court (Presiding Judge Na Sang-hoon) recently sentenced A to 9 years in prison and B to 5 years in prison, respectively.
Among them, A was on a repeat-offense probation period, having previously been sentenced to 6 years and 6 months in prison for a similar fraud crime.
The court stated, "The overall crime was carried out in an organized and planned manner, deceiving victims into believing that real estate with no actual collateral value had sufficient collateral value to misappropriate borrowed funds," adding, "In the process, active deception using forged private documents was also attempted."
The court explained the sentencing rationale, stating, "They even undermined the housing stability of many ordinary citizens trying to use the housing lease system, causing immense social harm, and it is difficult to find any sincere efforts made for victim recovery."
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