Former police officer involved in 6 billion won villa jeonse fraud has sentence reduced from 10 years to 8 on appeal

[Financial News] A former police officer who participated in a 6 billion won villa jeonse deposit fraud in Seoul’s Gwanak District was sentenced to eight years in prison on appeal, a two-year reduction from the 10-year sentence handed down at the first trial.
According to legal sources on the 1st, a panel of the Seoul Central District Court’s Criminal Appeals Division 8-1 (Judges Cha Seung-hwan, Choi Hae-il and Choi Jin-suk) sentenced Lee, a former police officer indicted on charges including fraud, to eight years in prison on the 23rd of last month. The panel also ordered Lee to pay a total of 280 million won in compensation to two victims.
At the first trial, Lee was sentenced to 10 years in prison and ordered to pay 450 million won in compensation to three victims.
Lee was indicted on charges of buying seven villas in and around Gwanak District, Seoul, under his own name and those of acquaintances and operating them as rental properties from September 2019 through December 2023, while failing to return the jeonse deposits of 46 people.
The investigation found that Lee showed the victims his civil servant ID card when signing the contracts, reassuring them.
The appeals court said, “The amount of the losses is substantial, and the victims, most of whom are people just starting their careers, appear to have suffered serious financial hardship. Yet most of the losses have not been recovered, making the offense particularly serious.”
The court nevertheless said that about 958 million won was expected to be repaid to victims through auction proceedings, and that the remaining victims also appeared likely to recover at least part of their losses, adding that the sentence handed down at the first trial was somewhat harsh.
The court explained that it had also considered, in determining the sentence, that Lee had no prior convictions, had admitted to part of the offense, and that one victim had petitioned for leniency.
The court overturned the compensation order for one victim whose compensation claim had been granted at the first trial, saying, “This is a case in which a compensation order cannot be issued because partial recovery of the losses has made the scope of the defendant’s compensation obligation unclear.”
The two acquaintances who lent Lee their names when he purchased the villas were each sentenced at the first trial to six months in prison, suspended for two years, and did not appeal.
[email protected] Choi Eun-sol Reporter