[Asia Economy Reporter Jeon Jin-young] Among the three mother and daughters accused of "gap investment" rental fraud in the Seoul metropolitan area, the mother was the first to be brought to trial.
On the 26th, according to the legal community, the Criminal Division 8 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Kim Woo) indicted the mother, Kim, on charges of fraud and violation of the Real Name Real Estate Act, and she was detained.
Kim is accused of purchasing about 500 villas in the Seoul metropolitan area, including Gangseo-gu and Gwanak-gu, Seoul, under her daughters' names since 2017, using jeonse (long-term lease) deposits, and collecting approximately 18.3 billion KRW in deposits from 85 tenants.
It was revealed that she conspired with a new villa sales agent to recruit tenants and received jeonse deposits higher than the sales price.
Afterward, she reportedly continued gap investment without using her own money by taking part of the amount as a rebate and paying the sales price to the building owner. The rebates collected by Kim and the sales agent amounted to up to about 51 million KRW per case, totaling approximately 1.185 billion KRW.
Kim was also found to have pushed ownership onto some tenants whose contracts had expired by suggesting, "Since I cannot return the deposit, buy the house."
The police transferred Kim without detention, but the prosecution detained her after confirming an additional 30 victims and about 7 billion KRW in damages through their own investigation.
A prosecution official said, "Additional investigations on the two daughters are ongoing."
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