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The mastermind behind a scam that embezzled approximately 6.6 billion won by promising to provide winning lottery numbers through an analysis system has been sentenced to a heavy prison term.
Judge Kim Ji-hoo of Criminal Division 2 at the Incheon District Court sentenced the 33-year-old ringleader, surnamed A, to 7 years in prison on charges of fraud and organizing a criminal syndicate.
A was indicted on charges of setting up an office in Incheon from April 2021 to August 2023 and swindling 6.624 billion won across approximately 14,000 transactions from members.
Investigations revealed that he took over two lottery number prediction websites and built an organized structure consisting of a CEO, an office manager, and first- and second-tier telemarketers to systematically recruit members.
He instructed telemarketing staff to deceive victims by falsely claiming that they had correctly predicted 2nd or 3rd place lottery numbers every Saturday when the actual results came out, even though no such wins had occurred.
He also induced victims to sign up for high-tier memberships requiring large payments of 1.1 million won or 2.2 million won or more, promising to extend their usage periods if they failed to win.
It was found that the numbers A provided to the victims were randomly extracted.
Judge Kim explained the sentencing rationale, stating, "The nature of the defendant's crime is very severe, and the culpability is heavy given the massive scale of the damage caused by systematic fraud," while adding, "The court considered the fact that the defendant is showing remorse and that some victims who recovered their financial losses do not want the defendant to be punished."
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