A 40-Year-Old on Probation Threatened Exposure After Confessing an 'Affair' During a Saju Reading...

117 Texts and 721 Calls Used for Exposure Threats
6 Months Imprisonment with 2 Years Probation

A man in his 40s who extorted money by using information about an affair he learned during a consultation after approaching someone under the pretense of reading their fortune was sentenced to prison in the first trial.

According to the legal community on the 9th, Judge Shin Seo-won of the Criminal Division 5 at the Seoul Eastern District Court sentenced Kim Mo (40), who was indicted on charges of extortion and violation of the Stalking Punishment Act, to six months in prison with a two-year probation period, and ordered 80 hours of community service and 40 hours of attending lectures on preventing stalking crime recidivism.

In November 2021, Kim posted a message on the secondhand trading application Danggeun Market saying "I will read your fortune," and during the consultation with victim A (48), who contacted him after seeing the post, he learned about A’s affair and debt relationship.

In May of last year, Kim threatened A by saying things like, "If you lie this time, I really won’t let it go. Can you put the money in or not?" and "Do you want to be truly disgraced in the neighborhood?" He extorted a total of 1.38 million won from A over 14 occasions by threatening to expose A’s private life.

When A said they would no longer send money, Kim sent 117 threatening text messages to A in June of the same year. He also made 721 phone calls to A and A’s husband’s office.

Judge Shin stated, "It appears that A suffered considerable mental distress due to Kim’s crimes," and added, "Kim was not forgiven by A."

Judge Shin explained, "Kim deposited 3 million won with the court for A, but A expressed no intention to receive the deposit and petitioned for severe punishment," and further said, "The sentence was determined after considering various factors such as Kim’s admission of guilt, being a first-time offender, the duration and frequency of the crimes, and circumstances after the crimes."

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