Swindlers Arrested for Embezzling 69.3 Billion Won in Deposit Using 'Proxy Buyers'

[Financial News] A group that committed a large-scale rental scam by using fake landlords has been caught by the police.
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's Financial Crime Investigation Unit announced on the 18th that they have arrested 71 people, including 8 consultants, 2 buyer brokers, and 1 general recruiter, on charges of fraud.
They are accused of swindling 69.3 billion won in rental deposits from 306 tenants between May 2020 and October 2022.
Due to financial difficulties, 'proxy buyers' who lend their names for a certain amount were used in the crime. They were presented as landlords, and the simultaneous purchase of villas and rental contracts were made, using the sales price as the deposit in a 'simultaneous transaction method'.
They also showed meticulousness by having each proxy buyer purchase 1 or 2 villas to prevent the organized crime from being exposed. Even if tenants who did not get their deposits back filed criminal complaints, they were classified as simple deposit non-payment, avoiding crackdown and investigation. They were not included in the list of malicious landlords by the Housing and Urban Guarantee Corporation (HUG) or the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's investigation requests.
The general recruiter and two buyer brokers who recruited proxy buyers received rebates of 2 million to 15 million won per case from consultants, earning illegal profits amounting to about 1.8 billion won. Proxy buyers received 300,000 to 1 million won from recruiters as compensation for lending their names.
The police obtained related intelligence and tracked over 540 account transactions, eventually identifying and arresting the scattered individuals involved.
425_sama@fnnews.com Choi Seung-han Reporter