Top Leaders of Illegal Multi-Level Marketing Scheme Aha Group Receive Final Prison Sentences at Supreme Court, Causing Hundreds of Billions of Won in Damages

[Financial News] The top leaders of Aha Group, which carried out an illegal multi-level marketing scheme worth hundreds of billions of won, have had their prison terms finalized by the Supreme Court of Korea.
According to the legal community on the 30th, the Second Division of the Supreme Court of Korea recently finalized prison terms of 12 years for Chairman A and 9 years for President B, who were indicted on charges of violating the Act on the Aggravated Punishment, etc. of Specific Economic Crimes, including fraud.
They were charged with raising about 46.8 billion won from 2,138 people through Aha Group, which was based in Changwon and Masan in South Gyeongsang Province, without registering as a multi-level sales business from 2016.
They deceived victims by taking investment money under the guise of welfare funds and similar payments, promising that there would be no loss of principal and that the full amount of the investment, excess returns, and lifetime dividends would later be guaranteed. In reality, they had no business capable of delivering such high returns and are accused of raising large sums of investment money by paying returns in a Ponzi-like manner.
In particular, while recruiting new investors, they claimed to have developed non-fungible token (NFT) characters and virtual real estate, but those claims were also false. During the trial, it was revealed that the real estate they had promised to investors as a stake in exchange for purchasing virtual property was already under a mortgage lien and had been placed in trust with a trust company.
They were initially sentenced to 13 years and 10 years in prison, respectively, at the first trial and appealed the ruling, but the appellate court also handed down heavy sentences of 12 years and 9 years. The Supreme Court rejected the appeal and upheld the lower court's ruling.

hwlee@fnnews.com Lee Hwan-ju Reporter