40s Arrested and Sent for Prosecution for Embezzling Hundreds of Millions by Selling Fishing Permits

A man in his 40s who swindled hundreds of millions of won by falsely claiming to sell fishing permits was handed over to the prosecution.

The Changwon Maritime Police in Gyeongnam announced on the 28th that they had arrested and sent Mr. A, in his 40s, to prosecution on the 16th on charges of fraud involving payment for the sale of fishing permits.

According to Changwon Maritime Police, Mr. A is accused of deceiving three fishermen in the Gyeongnam area, including Masan in Changwon City, from July 2022 to July this year, by pretending to sell fishing permits required for registering fishing vessels and embezzling 328 million won from them.

The vessel remains unbuilt due to a fraud involving the payment for the sale of fishing permits.
[Photo by Changwon Maritime Police Station]

It was revealed that he carried out a so-called 'Ponzi scheme' type contract fraud by entering into new contracts and using the payments from those contracts to fulfill existing contracts, despite being unable to properly execute the existing fishing permit sales contracts.

A Changwon Maritime Police official said, "As the fisheries industry is facing difficulties, fraudulent activities targeting fishermen are occurring frequently," and added, "We urge everyone to exercise special caution when making sales or other contracts."

Earlier, in June, the Changwon Maritime Police arrested and sent to prosecution a 60-year-old shipyard owner who embezzled about 680 million won in construction payments from seven victims who had commissioned fishing boat construction in the Gyeongnam area, and they plan to strongly respond to crimes infringing on the livelihoods of fishermen.

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