The 'Insta Stock Goddess' Was Actually a 16.1 Billion Won Fraudster... Ultimately Sentenced to Prison

8-Year Prison Sentence Upheld in Appeal
Showing Off on SNS and High-Priced Investment Tutoring

A woman in her 30s who posed as a 'stock market expert' online and gathered tens of thousands of followers was prosecuted for a massive financial fraud and sentenced to prison. She was known to have attracted investors by flaunting luxury goods and supercars on social networking services (SNS).

The 1st Criminal Division of Daegu High Court (Chief Judge Jin Seong-cheol) sentenced A (37) to 8 years in prison on the 27th in the appeal trial for charges including violation of the Act on the Aggravated Punishment, etc. of Specific Economic Crimes (fraud), the same as the first trial, multiple media outlets reported on the day. The court also ordered an additional payment of about 3.1 billion won in fines.

The court stated, "Based on various evidence, even when she was incurring losses from investments, she manipulated the situation to appear as if she had high profits, pretended to entrust funds to non-existent investment destinations, and deceived investors by guaranteeing principal or profits. She exaggerated her own rate of return to gather students for lectures, but if she had told the truth, there would have been no students," criticizing her actions.

Since March 2015, A had been verifying stock investment profits through her Instagram account. She boasted of her 'investment skills' by posting graphs showing high returns. She also flaunted her wealth by uploading photos of luxury foreign cars and designer goods.

A's SNS photo, who flaunted investment skills and wealth, gathering tens of thousands of followers. [Image source=Instagram]

Accumulating tens of thousands of followers in this way, A attracted co-investors under the pretext of "paying about 5-10% of the investment amount monthly if you invest with me."

She also held expensive offline lectures every weekend, attended by 50 to 70 people, costing about 3.3 million won per session. Some investors reportedly revered A with nicknames such as 'stock market expert,' 'Instagram stock goddess,' and 'God’s timing.'

However, A’s popularity did not last long. Starting around 2021, more netizens raised suspicions of fraud against her, and many videos highlighting A began to appear on YouTube broadcasts.

A KakaoTalk group chat was created where people claiming to have suffered financial damage from A shared specific cases of harm. Some victims testified to the Daegu Police Agency, and the police conducted an internal investigation into A.

Police investigations revealed that all of A’s claimed rates of return were false. Even when incurring losses, she deceived netizens with fake graphs and balance photos, and used manipulated stock price graphs during her investment lectures.

Ultimately, A was prosecuted on charges of embezzling a total of 16.1 billion won from 44 investors under the pretext of stock investment and receiving over 500 million won from 154 people under the pretext of investment lectures.