"Deceived Even Girlfriend's Younger Sister"... 50s Man Sentenced to Prison for Embezzling Hundreds of Millions

A man who embezzled several hundred million won by falsifying business profit rates was sentenced to prison.

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On the 22nd, Judge Kim Jae-eun of the Criminal Division 13 at Seoul Southern District Court announced that self-employed individual Kim (54), who was indicted on fraud charges, was sentenced to five years in prison.

Judge Kim stated, "The defendant had neither the intention nor the ability to properly pay the promised returns and principal to the victims by generating investment profits. He was engaged in a so-called 'Ponzi scheme,' using money received from investors to pay the principal and returns to other investors. Even when receiving investments, he only intended to use the funds to cover overdue rent of 30 to 40 million won and employee salaries for five operating stores, including a sandwich shop."

Kim was charged with receiving a total of 410 million won in nine installments from June 2021 to November 2021 from victim Kim, the younger sibling of his girlfriend, by promising a monthly return of 5% for long-term investments and 7-8% for short-term investments in a department store gift certificate sales business, and assuring that principal could be repaid if notified one month in advance.

Using the same method, he also received 576 million won from other victims between April 2021 and October 2022. However, the actual profit rate of this business was around 2-3%, and Kim failed to pay the promised money to the victims.

It is known that Kim was previously sentenced to 10 months in prison for fraud in June 2018 and was released in January 2019.

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