A man in his 60s has been sentenced to a heavy prison term for defrauding investors out of a large sum of money by luring them with the promise of investing in the "Philippine national coin."
On July 8, the Busan District Court Criminal Division 5 Single Judge (Presiding Judge Kim Hyunseok) announced that it had sentenced Mr. A to six years in prison on charges including fraud, and ordered the forfeiture of criminal proceeds totaling 6.98 billion won.
Mr. A was charged with holding investment briefings in Busan, Yangsan in South Gyeongsang Province, Gwangju, and Cheongju in North Chungcheong Province from August 2018 to February 2021, deceiving investors by promising to guarantee both profits and principal, and collecting a total of 19.2 billion won from more than 1,700 people.
In particular, he enticed investors by claiming, "There is a coin operated by the Philippine government," and "If you buy this coin, you can earn a 10% profit every day." He also promoted that he was running a market and bus business in the Philippines, and that the coin was used as a local bus transportation payment method, which could generate up to 500% profit.
However, in reality, Mr. A planned to use part of the investment funds to pay returns to earlier investors, or for personal living expenses and employee salaries. From the outset, he had neither the intention nor the ability to pay the promised principal and profits to the investors.
Judge Kim stated, "The defendant committed extremely serious offenses by systematically defrauding a large number of victims out of more than 19 billion won," and handed down a prison sentence.
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