"Fair Trade Commission Officer": Sisters Who Hired an Actor for Fraud Scheme Receive Heavy Sentences

Borrowed Money Using Forged Settlement Confirmation,
Delayed Repayment and Faked Partner's Seal
Fabricated Fair Trade Commission Summons

Two sisters who continued their crimes by borrowing large sums of money from acquaintances and using forged documents, including fake Fair Trade Commission appearance notices, have been sentenced to heavy prison terms. It was also revealed that they even hired an actor to play the role of a Fair Trade Commission officer in order to reassure their victims.

According to Yonhap News on the 29th, quoting legal sources, the 22nd Criminal Division of the Seoul Central District Court (Chief Judge Cho Hyung-woo) sentenced Ms. A and her younger sister Ms. B to 10 years and 7 years in prison, respectively, on charges of fraud under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes, forgery and use of official documents, and forgery and use of private documents.

The sisters, who ran an online shopping mall, stood trial on charges of embezzling more than 8.3 billion won from acquaintances and others from June 2023 to December 2024, under the pretext of borrowing money.

Yonhap News Agency

When the shopping mall's operating funds became insufficient, they tricked two acquaintances into lending them a total of nearly 8.088 billion won by claiming, "We will soon receive a large settlement payment from a business partner and repay you later." They also deceived an asset securitization company, promising to repay immediately upon receiving the settlement if they lent money secured by the business partner's receivables, thus borrowing an additional 300 million won.

To make their statements more believable, the sisters prepared documents. They presented the victims with a 'settlement payment confirmation' stating that a business partner was obliged to pay 2.1365 billion won in settlement. In reality, however, there was no such receivable from any business partner, and the confirmation itself was a forged document—made by creating a fake seal in the name of the business partner's representative.

When the victims questioned the delay in receiving the settlement payments, the sisters claimed, "The business partner is under investigation by the Fair Trade Commission," and presented a summons from the Fair Trade Commission. However, this document was also forged. They even went as far as hiring an actor to pose as a Fair Trade Commission employee actually conducting the investigation, in order to make their claims appear legitimate to the victims.

Over a period of approximately one year and six months, the sisters repeatedly committed these crimes and were ultimately indicted for fraud and document forgery. In court, they admitted all charges and pleaded for leniency, but the court determined that severe punishment was necessary, taking into consideration the duration and scale of the crimes, as well as their methods.

The court pointed out, "The defendants repeatedly deceived the victims over about a year and six months, fraudulently acquiring a substantial amount of money. During this process, they did not hesitate to repeatedly forge and use private documents in the name of business partners, nor to forge and use official documents, such as notices of corrective order following an alleged Fair Trade Commission investigation. The severity of their crimes is therefore extremely grave."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.