“Buying real estate with money my wife embezzled?”... Husband accused of being an accomplice ‘not guilty’

Suspected of purchasing real estate with approximately 280 million won from his wife who embezzled funds
Prosecutors say, “The normal apartment sales process… It is difficult to believe that the fact of embezzlement was hidden.”
 

The prosecution cleared a husband who was accused of hiding criminal proceeds, such as purchasing real estate with money embezzled by his wife.

According to the legal community on the 6th, the Ansan Branch of the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office cleared Mr. A, a man in his 60s, who was handed over to the prosecution on charges of violating the Act on Regulation and Punishment of Concealment of Criminal Proceeds on the 27th of last month.

Mr. A has been under investigation on charges of receiving and hiding about 280 million won of the approximately 3.5 billion won in funds that his wife, a company manager, had embezzled while working. The issue of the investigation was whether, despite knowing about his wife's embezzlement, he transferred a large amount of money into his account and used it to buy real estate such as an apartment and a new building.

Mr. A completely denied the charges, saying, “Because my wife was solely responsible for managing all household expenses and income, I did not even know the details of account transactions in my name.”

He continued, “I had no idea about the embezzlement until my wife went to the police to hand herself over,” and claimed, “The funds for purchasing the property in question were also purchased by combining the funds given by my mother with the existing deposit money.”

The prosecution accepted Mr. A's argument, saying that his apartment sale process appeared to be a normal flow.

The prosecution said, “According to the real estate transaction details, the apartments purchased in the name of the suspect were part of the normal apartment sales process, such as acquiring a house from no house or disposing of an existing house and acquiring a new house,” and concluded, “There are no circumstances confirmed to suggest that excessive property was acquired through criminal proceeds.”

Regarding the account in Mr. A’s name, he said, “It has been confirmed that the wife managed deposits and withdrawals directly with the certificate.”

In relation to this, lawyer Seo Bong-ha of Daeryun Law Firm, who represented Mr. A, explained, “According to Article 4 of the crime of concealment of criminal proceeds, it must be clearly proven that the person was aware of the circumstances,” adding, “It cannot be concluded that he was aware of another person’s crime and conspired to collect the proceeds just because he was a family member.”

He added, “In this case, it is a case where the wife was able to clear the unfair charge of being an accomplice by proving through objective financial transaction details that it was the wife who managed the household finances.”

Reporter Kim Mi-ji unknown@kyeonggi.com

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“Buying real estate with money embezzled by my wife?”… Husband accused of being an accomplice ‘acquitted’ (link)