Reviewing Fraud Prosecution Suspension Case to Confirm the Real Culprit
The prosecution identified the real culprit of a fraud case that occurred about 10 years ago, issued a summary indictment, and cleared Mr. A, who had been wrongfully charged, of all allegations.
On the 27th, the Criminal Division 3 of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Son Sang-hee) announced that while reviewing the suspended prosecution case against Mr. A, who had left the country due to immigration, they confirmed that Ms. B (29), a woman who had been investigated as a witness at the time, was the real culprit, issued a summary indictment against her, and cleared Mr. A of all charges. This change of the real culprit occurred about two months before the statute of limitations expired.
According to the prosecution, Ms. B, who was 19 years old in February 2015, pretended to sell wallets and other items normally to an unspecified number of people she met through Instagram, receiving approximately 600,000 KRW in payment into a bank account under her name. At the time, Ms. B was investigated as a witness by the police as the account holder used in the fraud but was not charged because she lied that she had lent the account to an acquaintance. It is known that Ms. B claimed that Mr. A, whom she pointed to as an acquaintance, was someone she met at an acting academy.
Mr. A, the acquaintance pointed out by Ms. B, has been residing overseas, and the case against him had been suspended for about 10 years. The prosecution explained that after reviewing records close to the statute of limitations, Mr. A was charged solely based on Ms. B’s statement despite having left the country before the crime and never returning.
Through additional investigation, the prosecution discovered that Ms. B had a confirmed conviction for the same method using the same social networking service (SNS) ID as in this case. Based on this, they identified the real culprit as Ms. B. The prosecution dismissed the charges against Mr. A, who had been wrongfully charged for about 10 years, and immediately lifted the wanted notice.
A representative of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office stated, "We will continue to thoroughly review cases to ensure that no one is wrongfully charged or punished, or that cases are unjustly buried."
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