A 20-something who swindled junior soldiers out of uniform money gambled 700 million won habitually; suspended sentence upheld on appeal

[Financial News] A person in their 20s who swindled several million won from 275 junior soldiers while in military service, claiming it was for uniform purchases and other expenses, and engaged in illegal gambling involving hundreds of millions of won has also received a suspended prison sentence on appeal.
According to Newsis on the 3rd, the Gwangju District Court's Criminal Division 3, presided over by Judge Kim Il-su, dismissed the appeal filed by A, a person in their 20s indicted on charges including fraud and habitual gambling, and imposed the same sentence as the first-instance court: two years in prison, suspended for four years.
A was indicted on charges of borrowing money from junior soldiers under the pretext of meal expenses and mileage for uniform purchases while serving as an enlisted member of the Republic of Korea Air Force from December 2023 to March 2024, deceiving them by promising to repay the money the following month, and then swindling about 9.5 million won from 275 of them.
A also faces charges of habitual gambling, having deposited approximately 725 million won on illegal sports gambling websites in about 5,000 transactions from 2017 through March 2024.
The first-instance court sentenced A to two years in prison, suspended for four years, saying, “A abused a position in the military to take money from more than 200 junior soldiers and even altered official documents during the Military Police investigation, making the offense serious.”
The appeals court explained its sentencing decision, saying, “Beyond the sentencing factors considered by the lower court, there are no new circumstances that would warrant changing the sentence, and the sentence imposed by the lower court did not exceed the reasonable bounds of its discretion.”
[email protected] Kim Su-yeon Reporter