Former Village Chief Subleased to Business Owners
Unpaid Rent Amounting to Approximately 120 Million Won Over 5 Years
The village chief and cafe operators in a village in Jeju who illegally subleased a closed school building, which was leased to them free of charge, have been handed over to the prosecution for profiting over several years.
On the 1st, Yonhap News reported that the Anti-Corruption Economic Crime Investigation Unit of the Jeju Police Agency sent former village chief A and cafe operators B and C of a certain village in Jeju to the prosecution on charges of fraud.
Jeju Provincial Office of Education estimated the annual rent they would have received from leasing the closed school property under a normal contract at approximately 24 million won. Mr. B and Mr. C generated total sales of 3.437 billion won over five years from 2018 to 2022. The photo is not related to the specific content of the article. Pixabay
This case arose when the Jeju Provincial Office of Education, which manages the property of the closed school, leased it free of charge to a village association in the province as part of an "income increase project." Under the "Special Act on the Promotion of Utilization of Closed School Properties," the Jeju Provincial Office of Education enters into free lease contracts with closed schools in the province for village residents' income increase projects and supervises them. Article 5, Paragraph 4 of the "Special Act on the Promotion of Utilization of Closed School Properties" stipulates that if local residents wish to jointly use closed school properties, the city or provincial superintendent of education must lease them free of charge.
They are accused of deceiving the Jeju Provincial Office of Education and embezzling approximately 120 million won in rental fees for the closed school over five years from 2018 to 2022. A, who was the village chief of the local village association, received a request from B and C in July 2017 to allow them to conduct business in the closed school. A submitted a false business plan to the Jeju Provincial Office of Education claiming it was a village residents' income increase project, leased the closed school free of charge, and then subleased it to B and others. From 2018 to 2022, B and others operated a cafe in the closed school without paying approximately 120 million won in rent over five years.
The Jeju Provincial Office of Education estimated that the annual rent they would have received if the closed school property had been leased under a normal contract was about 24 million won. B and C recorded total sales of 3.437 billion won over five years from 2018 to 2022. It was found that they paid 25 million won to the village association. The police judged the damage amount only as the free lease of the closed school property obtained by deceiving the Jeju Provincial Office of Education, excluding the cafe business profits.
Meanwhile, it was confirmed that the Jeju Provincial Office of Education was not even aware of this illegal lease of the closed school property until June of last year when the Board of Audit and Inspection conducted an audit. The Board of Audit and Inspection issued a "caution" to the Jeju Provincial Office of Education, stating, "We hope that the lease work of closed school properties will be thoroughly conducted to prevent free lease contracts of closed school properties through fraudulent means."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
