A real estate agent in her 60s who deceived tenants for years and embezzled over 600 million won in deposits was sentenced to prison.
On the 9th, Judge Lee Dong-sik of the Criminal Division 11 at the Seoul Northern District Court announced that he sentenced Ms. A (63), a female real estate agent indicted on charges of violation of the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes (fraud), forgery of private documents, and embezzlement in the course of business, to three years in prison.
Ms. A operated a real estate agency office in Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, and from April 2018 to last March, she is accused of embezzling a total of 617.1 million won in deposits from nine tenants over 15 occasions by transferring the money to her own account and forging three real estate lease contracts.
It was investigated that Ms. A called the victims and lied, saying, "The tenant urgently needs money and wants to switch to monthly rent," asking them to transfer the difference in the deposit to her. However, the tenants did not want to switch to monthly rent, and Ms. A intended to use the money for personal living expenses and debt repayment.
The court stated the sentencing reasons, saying, "Considering the duration and method of the crime and the scale of the damage, the culpability is serious," and added, "The tenants of the officetels were also unable to receive their deposits back on time, and the victims petitioned for severe punishment against the defendant."
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