'Speculation Allegations on Sale Rights' Gwangju Jisan 1 District Landowners Deny Charges in First Trial

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Jin-hyung] Homeowners in the Gwangju Jisan 1 District redevelopment project site, accused of real estate name trust to secure pre-sale rights, denied the charges at the first trial.

On the 26th, Judge Park Sang-soo of the Criminal Division 8 at Gwangju District Court held the first hearing for six landowners of the Jisan 1 District redevelopment project site, who are accused of violating the Act on Real Name Registration of Real Estate.

The landowners were indicted on charges of purchasing one-room units and other properties within the Jisan 1 District project site around 2019 without registering them under their own names, instead placing them under the names of their children or other family members through name trust.

They are also accused of receiving 33.75 million KRW, exceeding the statutory brokerage fee of 6.15 million KRW, during real estate transactions in the redevelopment area (violation of the Licensed Real Estate Agents Act).

The defendants' attorneys denied all charges, stating that all six defendants either had their family members purchase the real estate themselves or only gifted the purchase funds, thus denying any wrongdoing.

They also argued that the disputed real estate transactions were all legitimate, and therefore the charges of violating the Licensed Real Estate Agents Act should be acquitted.

Earlier, the police referred more than 14 people to the prosecution regarding speculation allegations in Jisan 1 District, but it is known that among the six finally indicted by the prosecution, there were no cases involving "splitting shares" by purchasing multi-family houses after buying multi-unit houses where many pre-sale rights were issued.

Among the defendants is the chairman of the association for the Gwangju Hakdong 4 District redevelopment project, where 17 casualties occurred last year.

The Jisan 1 District redevelopment project is a plan to build an apartment complex consisting of 8 buildings and 473 households, ranging from two basement floors to 25 above-ground floors, on a 31,065㎡ site in Jisan 1-dong, Dong-gu, Gwangju.

The next trial is scheduled for June 16.

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