A Man in His 50s Sentenced to Prison for Defrauding Fraud Victim Again, Claiming "Need Money to Repay"

"Will Send My Son to a Big Company"... Embezzled 73 Million Won, Suspended Prison Sentence
"Needed Money to Repay Damages," Committed Fraud Again... This Time Prison Sentence

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] A man in his 50s who repeatedly committed fraud against victims of his previous scam was sentenced to prison in the first trial.

According to the court on the 3rd, Judge Shin Hyunil of the Seoul Central District Court Criminal Division 7 recently sentenced welder A (59, male), who was indicted on fraud charges, to 2 years and 6 months in prison.

A was brought to trial on charges of committing fraud again against Mr. B's side from 2015 to 2020, claiming "money is needed to repay the damages from the fraud."

The previous fraud involved A deceiving B's spouse in 2009 by saying he would get their son employed at a large corporation and extorting 73 million won. He received a suspended prison sentence in 2014 for this case.

It was investigated that the money A received from B under the pretext of "preparing compensation funds" amounted to about 458 million won in total over 128 times in more than five years.

A lied to B with various excuses such as "I own two apartments under a friend's name who lives abroad, but to sell them, the friend needs airfare to enter the country," "I won a house at auction in Seoul, but to evict the tenant, I need to return the deposit," and "To release a bank account seized by the Financial Supervisory Service, I need to pay a fine." However, it was revealed that he had no significant assets or income and debts exceeding 600 million won.

Judge Shin sentenced A to imprisonment, stating, "After committing fraud against the victim's spouse, he committed fraud again during the recidivism period (3 years after the end or exemption of sentence execution) using that as leverage," and pointed out, "The damage amount is very large and has not been recovered, and there are multiple prior convictions for similar crimes."

However, the judge also said, "Considering that the defendant admits his wrongdoing, we will not detain him in court to give him a chance to restore the damage."

As A appealed, the case will be subject to a second trial.