[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Ju Cheol-in] A woman in her 50s who deceived victims into believing they could earn large profits by investing in Chinese real estate and stocks, and collected hundreds of millions of won, received a reduced sentence in the appellate court.
The Changwon District Court Criminal Division 3-1 (Presiding Judges Kim Ki-pung, Jang Jae-yong, Yoon Seong-yeol) announced on the 20th that it overturned the original sentence of 2 years imprisonment for A (51), who was tried on fraud charges, and sentenced her to 1 year and 6 months imprisonment.
A began in March 2013 by claiming that she was running a rental business in China and that investing in this business guaranteed at least a 20% annual return, deceiving victims into investing 150 million won, and by 2017, she had received a total of 294.6 million won from three people.
As her debts continued to accumulate, she tried to recover by deceiving victims, saying, "I know good stocks that wealthy Chinese invest in," and "If you lend me money, I will pay it back with interest."
Until May 2013, A actually owned real estate, but most of it had been sold due to other debts, making it difficult to earn profits.
The court stated, "It does not appear that A had a definite intent to embezzle the victims' money, and she paid a certain amount to one victim for a considerable period under the name of interest," and "Considering that A admitted to the crime and showed remorse, and has no prior criminal record exceeding fines, the original sentence was too heavy."
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