"Han Dong-hoon’s Cousin, I'll Get You a Proportional Representative Seat"... 'Impersonation' Crimes Everywhere

Investigation Underway for Man Accused of Impersonation Ahead of General Election
Frequent Celebrity Impersonation Crimes... Including Noso-Young and Doctor Impersonations

With the general election just over a month away, a man impersonating a relative of Han Dong-hoon, the Emergency Response Committee Chairman of the People Power Party, to collect money has been caught.

On the 9th, the Gangnam Police Station in Seoul announced that they have booked a man in his 70s, Mr. A, on charges of fraud and violation of the Public Official Election Act and are investigating.

Gangnam Police Station, Seoul. [Photo by Yonhap News]

According to the police, last month Mr. A claimed to be a relative of Chairman Han and told Mr. B, in his 60s, "I will get you elected as a proportional representative," after which he received 13 million won.

The police are verifying the specific circumstances of the case, including whether Mr. A is indeed a relative of Chairman Han. Mr. A is reported to have denied the charges.

Meanwhile, it has been reported that Noh So-young, director of Art Center Nabi, filed a complaint against her secretary for identity theft and other reasons, prompting the police to launch an investigation.

On the 5th, the Yongsan Police Station in Seoul stated that they are investigating Mr. C, who worked as Director Noh’s secretary, on charges of fraud under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes and forgery of private documents.

Mr. C joined Art Center Nabi in 2019 and was in charge of Director Noh’s secretarial duties. From December 2019 to the end of 2023, he is suspected of embezzling approximately 1.975 billion won from Director Noh’s account into his own account multiple times.

Additionally, from 2020 to 2022, he allegedly opened accounts using Director Noh’s name without authorization, took out loans totaling 190 million won in two installments, and last May impersonated Director Noh to embezzle 500 million won of Art Center Nabi’s public funds. The total amount embezzled is about 2.6 billion won. Director Noh filed a complaint against Mr. C with the police in January.

A man in his 40s who impersonated a doctor to fraudulently obtain several million won from others, claiming hardship due to a doctors’ strike, was also arrested by the police.

According to the Jungnang Police Station in Seoul, Mr. D is suspected of sending a photo of himself wearing a doctor’s coat to a woman in her 40s whom he met through chatting, impersonating a university hospital doctor, and receiving about 8 million won over 36 occasions from December 21 last year to around the 28th of last month.

He is believed to have used photos of another doctor found on social networking services (SNS) and deceived the victim by saying things like, "I work as a pay doctor but haven’t been paid properly due to the strike," and "My savings maturity date is coming soon, so please transfer money."

The victim only became aware of the fraud after recently being contacted by the police. Mr. D had previously been punished for doctor impersonation crimes and was released from prison in October last year.

During the police investigation, he reportedly stated, "I did it because I had no money after getting out (of prison)," admitting to committing the crime again.

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