[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] It has been revealed through the prosecution's investigation that three women, who were indicted for a gap investment fraud involving hundreds of billions of won, committed a larger-scale fraud using the same method.
The Criminal Division 8 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Kim Hyung-seok) announced on the 30th that Kim (57, detained and indicted) was additionally indicted on charges of fraud.
The prosecution also additionally indicted four others, including Song (detained and indicted), the representative of a sales agency company, on charges of participating in Kim's crime and conducting financial transactions under another person's name to evade taxes (violation of the Act on Real Name Financial Transactions). The two daughters who lent their names to their mother Kim were also referred back to trial on charges of violating the Real Estate Real Name Act.
According to the prosecution, Kim and employees of the sales agency are accused of purchasing hundreds of villas with jeonse deposits over two years starting from September 2017, then embezzling deposits worth approximately 49.7 billion won from 219 tenants.
They selected mid-priced newly built villas with high rental demand and calculated the sale price by adding rebates they would receive to the deposit amount payable to the building owners. This occurred during a period when large-scale "empty jeonse" cases happened, leading to situations where deposits could not be returned upon contract expiration.
The group was previously indicted in July for embezzling deposits worth about 29.8 billion won from 136 tenants between April 2017 and 2020 using the same method. The prosecution uncovered new charges through additional investigations and merged them into the ongoing trial.
As a result, the total number of tenants victimized by the ringleader Kim has increased to 355, with total damages amounting to 79.5 billion won. Initially, when the police transferred the three women without detention, the number of victims was 51.
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