A real estate agent who manages real estate on behalf of the building owner and steals the deposit… 5 years in prison

Signed a lease agreement on behalf of the building owner... Earned approximately 1.3 billion won over 35 sessions
The court said, “Use for personal use is a serious crime… The victim suffers financial difficulties.”

A real estate agent who managed real estate on behalf of a building owner and stole deposits was sentenced to prison.

The Pyeongtaek Branch of Suwon District Court sentenced Mr. A, a man in his 40s who was tried on fraud charges, to five years in prison last September.

Mr. A was accused of collecting about 1.3 billion won in deposits from 16 tenants, including Mr. B, on 35 occasions while signing a lease contract on behalf of the building owner for about two years starting in 2022.

As a result of the investigation, it was confirmed that the owner of the building, who was staying overseas at the time, was unable to enter the country for a certain period of time and delegated the authority to manage the deposit to Mr. A, who took advantage of this to commit a crime.

The court sentenced Mr. A to 5 years in prison.

The court said, "The defendant used the deposit for personal purposes and then received a large amount of deposit again when renewing a contract with an existing tenant. He used the money to invest in stocks and coins and for his own business expenses, so the nature of the crime is not good."

He then stated the reason for sentencing, saying, “The period of the crime was long, the number of victims was large, and the amount of damage was very large, causing financial difficulties for the victims.”

Lawyer Seongjin Yoon of Daeryun Law Firm, who represented Mr. B, explained, "'Deception,' which is a requirement for fraud, refers to any act that violates the duty of good faith and sincerity that must be maintained in property transactions. During the trial, we were able to get a prison sentence by emphasizing that Mr. A used the name of the building owner to lie that there would be no problem with the return of the deposit and embezzled the money."

#building owner #deposit #real estate agent #prison sentence

Park Seok-ho (haitai2000@ikbc.co.kr)

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A real estate agent who manages real estate on behalf of the building owner and steals the deposit... 5 years in prison (link)