"Promising Jobs to Large Corporation Delivery Drivers"...Gang Indicted for Deceiving Cargo Truck Owners

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Jung-yoon] A group that deceived people into purchasing cargo trucks with inflated modification costs by promising employment as delivery drivers for large corporations has been brought to trial.

On the 14th, the Environmental and Health Crime Task Force of the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Ha Dam-mi) announced that A (38), the actual operator of a logistics company and its 13 subsidiaries, was arrested and indicted on charges of fraud, while 23 others, including subsidiary representatives and vehicle modification company representatives, were indicted without detention. There are 1,894 victims, and the amount of damage reaches 52.3 billion KRW.

They are accused of recruiting delivery drivers from January 2018 to November last year, then deceiving them into purchasing cargo trucks modified into refrigerated trucks, and making them sign installment contracts with capital companies for the inflated modification costs. The logistics company established 13 subsidiaries and used trade names that could be mistaken for large corporate affiliates, repeatedly posting job advertisements on recruitment websites. They also impersonated HR personnel from large corporate delivery companies.

The victims signed contracts for cargo trucks at 28 million KRW per vehicle, which is the sum of the new vehicle price of 16 million KRW and modification costs of 12 million KRW. Logistics company officials colluded with vehicle modification companies to inflate the usual modification cost of about 6 million KRW to 12 million KRW, then arranged for victims to sign contracts with false documents and shared the 6 million KRW difference.

The victims, many of whom were disabled, foreigners, and women, were deceived into signing installment contracts for cargo trucks but ultimately failed to gain employment and were left burdened with high installment debts.

A prosecution official stated, "Through thorough supplementary investigations of complaints previously sent with no charges, we uncovered the full extent of an organized fraud scheme that deceived numerous victims and embezzled large sums of money."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.