A man in his 30s who embezzled hundreds of millions of won by claiming to sell convertible bonds and virtual assets at low prices was sentenced to prison.
On the 5th, Judge Lee Chang-yeol of the Criminal Division 4 of the Seoul Northern District Court announced that Park (32), who was tried on charges of fraud, was sentenced to three years in prison. He was also ordered to pay 20 million won in restitution to the claimant.
Park was indicted on charges of operating a call center and deceiving an unspecified number of people by soliciting investments to take their money. Park used phone calls, text messages, and KakaoTalk to falsely claim that he was issuing convertible bonds of domestic companies at low prices or selling virtual assets cheaply as compensation to users of a lottery company. Through this, from January last year for about one month, he embezzled approximately 400 million won from 17 victims over 50 transactions.
The judge stated, "Despite being in the recidivism period due to similar crimes, the defendant did not repent and committed each of the crimes in this case in an organized and planned manner under his own initiative," and ruled, "The defendant embezzled more than 400 million won by using the victims' information he purchased from an unspecified number of people." He added, "Considering the methods and results of the crimes, including using bank accounts under others' names and burner phones registered under foreigners' names, the defendant's culpability is severe and the blameworthiness is high," and "The unrecovered damage amounts to about 330 million won, and the majority of the victims have not forgiven him."
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