2140 People Caught by Police for Illegal Apartment Sale and Trading of Subscription Savings Accounts

National Police Agency to Conduct 100-Day Special Crackdown on Real Estate Market Disruption from August to Mid-Month
387 Cases and 2,140 People Caught... 235 Cases and 1,682 People Prosecuted, 8 Including Broker Ringleaders Arrested

Photo by Asia Economy DB

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Byung-don] # A group involved in illegally obtaining apartment pre-sale rights in the southern Gyeonggi region and reselling them has been arrested en masse by the police. They paid compensation to holders of special apartment supply qualifications, such as persons with disabilities or multi-child families, and acquired subscription savings accounts to receive pre-sale rights through methods like false address registration. The Southern Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency's Intelligent Crime Investigation Unit arrested 80 people, including brokers and fraudulent winners, who gained unfair profits worth about 1.2 billion KRW through these methods, and detained one ringleader. The contracts for 65 apartments supplied during the crime were naturally canceled.

# In Seoul, 15 people, including five brokers and ten name lenders, were arrested for illegally reselling special supply apartment pre-sale rights obtained by paying 3 million to 10 million KRW each to ten persons with disabilities recommended by institutions. One of these apartments was resold with a premium of 108 million KRW. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's Intelligent Crime Investigation Unit detained one ringleader among them.

As the real estate market disorder worsens, thousands involved in real estate market disruption were caught in special police crackdowns.

The National Police Agency announced on the 17th that from August 7 to this month’s 14th, a "100-day special crackdown on real estate market disruption" was conducted, resulting in 387 cases and 2,140 people being investigated. Among them, 235 cases involving 1,682 people were prosecuted, and eight people, including broker ringleaders with serious charges, were detained. Investigations are ongoing for the remaining 152 cases involving 458 people.

In this crackdown, apartment pre-sale rights illegal resale (715 people, 33.4%) and subscription savings account trading (287 people, 13.4%) accounted for about half of the total real estate market disruption activities. Other offenses included planned real estate fraud using development information (588 people, 27.5%), redevelopment and reconstruction corruption (235 people, 11.0%), unregistered real estate brokerage (149 people, 7.0%), jeonse fraud (110 people, 5.1%), and public housing rental corruption (56 people, 2.6%).

The police focused on cracking down on organized and corporate-style illegal activities mainly in the metropolitan area and other regions showing signs of real estate overheating. As a result, 637 people were investigated in Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeonggi areas alone, with 527 prosecuted and four brokers specializing in illegal resale and subscription savings account trading detained.

In Jeonbuk, 362 people who illegally resold apartment pre-sale rights in Eco City and Innovation City in Deokjin-gu, Jeonju, along with 84 brokers who facilitated the transactions, were caught and handed over to the prosecution. In Sejong and Jeju, where real estate development prospects continued, 328 people including agricultural corporation representatives and investors were caught for reselling illegally acquired farmland through share division methods, earning tens of billions of KRW in profits.

The police plan to actively collaborate with related agencies to improve laws and systems to eradicate real estate market disruption, especially pushing for amendments to the "Act on Regulation of Concealment of Crime Proceeds" to enable confiscation or seizure of criminal proceeds from illegal resale and other crimes.

A police official said, "We will continue regular crackdowns on real estate market disruption, form task forces with related agencies such as the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and local governments to conduct joint crackdowns, and respond strictly according to law and principles. We ask citizens for active reporting and tips to eradicate real estate market disruption."

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