A woman who deceived acquaintances into giving her hundreds of millions of won by pretending her daughter was working as an accountant in the United States has been sentenced to 4 years and 6 months in prison by the court.
According to the legal community on the 1st, the Criminal Division 28 of the Seoul Central District Court (presided by Judge Han Dae-kyun) reported that it sentenced A, who was indicted on charges of fraud under the Special Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes, to 4 years and 6 months in prison on the 16th of last month.
A is accused of defrauding three acquaintances out of more than 700 million won through 19 separate incidents from May 2023 to June of last year.
A borrowed money from her acquaintances, claiming that "my daughter is working as an accountant in the United States, and expensive cryptocurrency is tied up in the local court."
Even more cleverly, A communicated with her daughter B, exchanging messages stating that they would request a cryptocurrency-related company to unlock a USB wallet, and then meticulously showed the captured conversation to avoid arousing the suspicions of her acquaintances.
Additionally, A is reported to have borrowed money under the pretext that B was building a house for Airbnb in the United States.
False Claims and Court's Judgment
However, as a result of the prosecution's investigation, it was revealed that B was not an accountant in the United States but had fled to the U.S. around February 2021 and was wanted for multiple criminal cases, including fraud. This fact completely contradicted what A had told her acquaintances.
During the trial, A claimed, "I simply trusted my daughter and had no intention of deceiving anyone," but the court did not accept this defense.
The court stated, "It is consistent with common sense to see that the defendant, as B's mother, was aware of her daughter's financial status" and concluded that "it is very difficult to believe that she borrowed a large amount of money from several people based solely on the words of a child who is wanted."
The court also pointed out, "Considering the methods of operation and the scale of the damages, the nature of the crime is serious, and the defendant has a history of being punished several times for similar offenses," explaining the reasoning behind the 4 years and 6 months prison sentence.
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