A Man in His 40s Pretending to Be Wealthy to His Girlfriend Turns Out to Be 'Broke'... Jailed for Extorting Hundreds of Millions

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kang Sharon] On the 20th, Judge Cho Hyun-wook of Changwon District Court Criminal Division 5 sentenced A (47), who was prosecuted on charges of fraud for pretending to be a wealthy person and receiving about 240 million won from his girlfriend, to 1 year and 10 months in prison.

In August 2017, A approached B, pretending to be a wealthy person with real estate worth about 1.4 billion won in Haeundae, Busan, and a luxury resort membership, and developed a romantic relationship.

Subsequently, by deceiving B with statements such as "If you lend me funds to acquire a used car dealership, I will sell the real estate to repay you," A extorted a total of about 240 million won from B over 13 occasions until October 2018.

However, upon investigation, it was found that A had debts and overdue taxes amounting to about 170 million won, had the lowest credit rating of grade 10, and the real estate was owned by his ex-wife's sister, so he had no authority to dispose of it.

Judge Cho stated, "The crime is very serious as the defendant deceived the victim by pretending to be wealthy and took money over a long period," and "Considering that the defendant neither admitted the crime, showed remorse, nor made any effort to compensate the victim, the sentence is determined accordingly."

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