Employees of a local agricultural cooperative who inflated land appraisals to secure loans exceeding the sale prices, along with real estate developers who conspired with them, have been collectively handed over to the prosecution.
According to the Gimhae Jungbu Police Station in Gyeongnam, from April 2014 to October 2016, they are suspected of agreeing to appraise paddy fields at the level of building sites before executing ownership transfer loans, inflating the appraised values, and issuing fraudulent loans amounting to approximately 9 billion KRW.
In 2014, they inflated the value of paddy fields purchased around Tongyeong to 1.9 billion KRW, equivalent to building site levels, and fraudulently obtained 1.4 billion KRW in loans. In 2015, land in Geoje with a sale price of 114 million KRW was appraised at about 1.084 billion KRW, resulting in a loan of 865 million KRW.
On the 28th, the police announced that 16 people, including agricultural cooperative employee A, suspected of violating the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes (breach of trust), were sent to the prosecution without detention with a recommendation for indictment.
The police conducted a search and seizure of the agricultural cooperative, traced the suspects' accounts, and investigated related parties such as landowners, uncovering their conspiracy and arresting all involved.
The agricultural cooperative that executed the loans is reported to have borne the burden of non-performing loans as the lands used for the loans were traded at prices lower than the loan amounts.
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