Woman in Her 60s Who Swindled 1.4 Billion Won in Retirement Funds From Retired Teacher Also Used Money for Gambling

Gwangju High Court Upholds Seven-Year Prison Sentence
Fraud Committed by Pleading Hardship from Private Loan Debts

A woman in her 60s who swindled a large sum of retirement savings from an acquaintance, an elementary school teacher, has been sentenced to prison again on appeal.

According to Yonhap News on April 16, the Criminal Division 1 of the Jeonju Panel of the Gwangju High Court (Presiding Judge Jung Moonkyung) dismissed the defendant's appeal and upheld the original sentence of seven years in prison for Ms. A (60, female), who was charged with fraud under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes.

Gwangju High Court exterior. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

Ms. A was brought to trial on charges of borrowing approximately 1.4 billion won from her acquaintance, Ms. B, a total of 278 times between December 2022 and October 2024 and failing to repay the money. Ms. A, who previously worked as an educational staff member, had worked at the same school as Ms. B in the past. As her private loan debts became unmanageable, Ms. A pleaded hardship to Ms. B, borrowing several million to tens of millions of won at a time.

During this period, Ms. A deceived Ms. B by saying things like, "Gangsters are coming to take me away," and "I might be killed today," implying that her life was in danger if she could not repay her private loans. Having retired after serving more than 40 years as an elementary school teacher, Ms. B sympathized with Ms. A's situation and repeatedly helped her using her saved retirement funds. However, even after borrowing hundreds of millions of won, Ms. A continued to ask for more money, and Ms. B provided funds using cash advances and long-term loans on her credit cards, as well as overdraft accounts. Ms. B even went so far as to take out loans in her family's names and borrow money with difficulty from her former students, all in the hope that Ms. A could recover.

Investigations found that Ms. A used the money borrowed from Ms. B to send to her family, pay for living expenses, and repay personal debts. Some of the defrauded funds were even squandered as gambling money at Kangwon Land, a domestic casino. It was found that Ms. A visited the casino, which is more than three hours from her home, as few as three times and as many as nine times a month, losing money each time.

As a result of this case, Ms. B not only lost all her retirement savings but also ended up saddled with substantial debt. It is reported that she is now paying 6 million won in interest payments alone every month due to the debt.

The appellate court stated, "Even if, as the defendant claims, she committed the crime because her debt rapidly increased while using illegal private loans and due to threats from loan sharks, the amount defrauded in this case is significant and almost no restitution has been made." Regarding the sentencing, the court added, "The victim and her family are repeatedly appealing for a severe punishment for the defendant, citing economic and mental suffering. Considering the uncertainty over whether restitution will be made in the future, it is difficult to conclude that the original sentence was excessively harsh or outside the reasonable scope of discretion."

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