A man in his 30s who pretended to be wealthy and swindled over 20 million won from a woman he met on a dating application was sentenced to prison.
On the 28th, Lee Hodong, a judge of the Criminal Division 3 at the Seoul Eastern District Court, announced that he sentenced A (36), who is accused of fraud, to six months in prison.
A is accused of borrowing money from B, whom he started dating after meeting on a dating app in 2020, and failing to repay it.
At the time, A, who was the CEO of a construction company, asked B to lend him money, claiming he needed to pay for construction materials. A pretended to be wealthy, saying he lived in Signiel, a luxury officetel in Songpa-gu, Seoul, and owned two luxury cars.
Believing A’s promise to repay the money once the construction completion payment was received, B gave approximately 26 million won in 32 installments.
However, A had not actually secured any construction contracts and therefore had no payments to make. It was confirmed that he planned to use the money received from B for debt repayment and living expenses.
Additionally, A is also accused of impersonating a construction company CEO and extorting money from C, whom he met and started dating through a KakaoTalk open chat in 2022.
A flaunted his wealth by claiming he lived in a luxury apartment in Cheongdam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, and owned a supercar. However, at that time, A had quit the construction company and was unemployed.
Later, A borrowed over 6 million won from C in six installments, claiming he needed money for client payments and his mother’s jeonse deposit, but did not repay it.
Furthermore, A opened a mobile phone contract under C’s name and failed to pay the bills until April of last year. C paid 1.15 million won in communication fees on A’s behalf.
The judge stated the reason for sentencing, saying, "The defendant deceived C to repay his debt to B, which makes the nature of the crime very serious."
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