Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office Indicts Guro Housing Association Official for Embezzling 24 Billion Won
Prosecutors: "Committed to Recovering Criminal Proceeds for Substantial Damage Compensation"
[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Byung-don] Regional housing association officials accused of embezzling hundreds of billions of won from over 400 ordinary citizens have been brought to trial.
The Criminal Division 1 of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Kim Won-ji) announced on the 8th that it has arrested and indicted Mr. B, the chairman of the A Regional Housing Association Promotion Committee in Guro-gu, Seoul, and Mr. C, the CEO of the business agency, on charges including fraud, while indicting Mr. D, the CEO of the member recruitment agency, without detention.
According to the prosecution, from November 2016 to September 2019, they are accused of embezzling a total contract amount of approximately 23.9 billion won from 477 victims.
At that time, the A Regional Housing Association was in a situation where it was difficult to proceed with the project in a short period due to lack of consent and support from landowners. However, they falsely promoted that 60-80% of land use rights had been secured and that move-in was possible by 2021.
To obtain approval for establishing a regional housing association, the condition of securing land use rights for at least 80% of the housing construction site area must be met, but it was revealed that the actual secured land use rights were only 20-30%.
The prosecution explained, "They exploited the desperate situation of homeless people seeking to own a home and embezzled hundreds of billions of won from them under the pretext of association contract deposits."
Additionally, Mr. B and Mr. C are also charged with causing approximately 2.3 billion won in damages to the promotion committee and obtaining financial benefits by submitting documents with falsified land consent rates to the trust company and receiving land service fees.
Furthermore, Mr. C faces additional charges of arbitrarily using about 4.2 billion won in business agency fees and project funds received from the trust company by withdrawing them by check for investment in a real estate development project of an acquaintance.
The police, who received complaints from victims in July last year, transferred the case to the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office in July this year, one year later. The prosecution decided to indict after conducting a search of the trust company, tracing funds, and investigating related parties.
The prosecution stated, "We will thoroughly maintain the prosecution to ensure that the defendants receive sentences commensurate with their crimes," and added, "We will make every effort to recover criminal proceeds to achieve substantial restitution for the victims."
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