Eight Realty Companies Banned By USFK for Issuing Fake Installation Passes
I wonder if these realty companies will just do a name change and be back in business again:
The U.S. military’s largest base in South Korea has banned business with eight local real estate companies for 10 years over allegations of using fraudulent passes to access the installation.
Camp Humphreys said Wednesday that the businesses were placed off-limits after a review determined they had “conspired to illegally access” the Army garrison “using fraudulently issued base passes.”
“This directly affects the safety and security of the installation,” it added, saying the decision was made after a Feb.13 emergency meeting with the area’s Armed Forces Disciplinary Control Board.
“No U.S. personnel are allowed to do new business with these establishments as long as this order is in effect,” it said, stressing the ban was an administrative, not a judicial, action and not subject to appeal. (………)
Stars & Stripes
Here are the realty companies involved:
The announcement, which was posted on Camp Humphreys’ Facebook page, said people who have leases with the affected companies could continue to do business with them for the duration but may not use the companies to renew the leases.
The banned companies were listed as Abba Realty, Christine Realty, JC Realty, GM Realty, Woomi Realty, Uptown Realty, New York Realty, and You & I Realty.
You can read more at the link.
Nothing new here really. When I was last at Yongsan (1995-2000), realty companies were always getting banned from doing business with USFK personnel. However, it usually didn’t involve fake base passes (which I don’t understand how realty companies would be allowed to do). Instead, it did have to do with the realty companies knowing exactly what everyone’s housing allowance was and would find people housing off base that used up all of their allowances. Alternatively, they would falsify paperwork to say that the housing cost was at the max but really wasn’t and either split the difference with the USFK member or just pocketed it for themselves.
This practice was especially true when the landlords demanded “key money” where they charged a supersized security deposit, deposited the money in the bank and returned the principal at the end of the lease and kept the interest. Key money either decreased the rent substantially or eliminated it altogether. As @GIKorea said, if the realty companies got caught working these scams they usually just reincorporated under a new owner and went right back to business.
@Tagum City Tim, the rent scam is exactly what Julie’s Realty got caught doing years ago:
https://www.stripes.com/news/korea-realty-company-allowed-to-work-with-area-ii-personnel-again-1.93980
I went to see if Julie’s is still in business and it looks like they are doing better than ever over at Camp Humphreys:
https://juliesrealty.modoo.at
@GIKorea – SSDD (Same sh*t, different decade).
Here’s an interesting discussion that relates: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/04/11/fool-born/
Who decides what realty companies a USFK service member or dependent uses? And who is checking on them? This used to be something NCOs did for their charges; but I suppose it was outsourced…
Tim: The base passes they use aren’t CAC’s, they’re cardboard/paper with a stamp and writing. Most likely USFK has very little non-Korean personnel involved in that whole process because they’re lazy AF so there you go, {insert corruption here}. Insert the fact that nearly 100% of gates are manned by Koreans who are usually in their twilight years and could give a ____ for extra hilarity.
GI: The 2nd Budong… heh.. realitor listed is Christines, she did all of our moves up in Area I as an employee for (wait for it….), Julies. Personally she was nice but a clear Julie-wannabe. The Bae doesn’t fall far from the Namu… (I think I got that right, been a while).
Setnaffa: Authorized realtor list published by 8th Army, you would need a waiver detailing a real good reason to use a service not listed. Dependants aren’t authorized to do anything, it’s all done by the sponsor. Checks on them for what? You have to use a realtor from the list otherwise housing won’t process the rental agreement. Really man? Ye olde: “NCOs used to _____” ? First off all ranks are involved in obtaining off-post housing and I doubt E-4&v are in the majority so who would these NCOs be checking on? Other NCOs? Warrants? Commanders? “Hey COL I’m here for your room inspection, tell your family to wait out in the hall…”. Furthermore I find it very unlikely for someone to get through in-processing without being asked 500 times by the people in their section “Hey you good? Hey how’s housing going?” Oh hey lemme give you some advice on ____”. So for this particular issue lets put away the knee-jerk and leave the NCOs be. 🙂
As for that extra hoo-hah in Tim’s post, gonna break into another post.
Okay Smoke, I’ll leave your NCOs alone… I never had much to do with officers outside of flying, so I’ll assume you’re on top of this.
Scam? What scam? Well OK, Julie Beak falsifying paperwork to skim money, yeah that’s a scam. The Jeonsae System isn’t a scam, we as Americans might look at it as a weird/risky way to do things but it’s been a part of Korea since before your pappy’s pappy was out of diapers. Jeonsae or “key money” isn’t a scam, feel free to not like it but you’re mislabeling it.
I’m not sure how “knowing exactly what everyone’s housing allowance was” is a scam but what do you want? It’s data made public by the federal government. You think realtors in CONUS aren’t looking at that data too? The only scam I see here is the government scamming people into thinking this is good way to do business.
I don’t even know what “would find people housing off base that used up all of their allowances” means. Can you revisit and clarify?
“split the difference with the USFK member” That’s only a thing with someone who receives OHA as the money involved is never really the member’s money, they’re simply a pair of hands passing cash between the US and KR. While this is possible it’s a huge risk and I hope that 30k or so makes up for the loss of a job and clearance. Non-OHA personnel don’t need to get all underhanded to squirrel money, it’s theirs to spend as they see fit.
As for getting back into business, it’s going to require a bit more than a simple name change. USFK knows who the owner is. It’d require tearing down the business and starting up a new one, getting all the permits and licenses and then convincing someone to front it that will trust you, a known cheater to run from the shadows. Its pretty clear from the past occurrences that it’s easier to pay the fines, make some promises, appeal it to death. Considering this is a 10-year ban and it is a security based incident… hmm.. dunno on this one.
Final note on this, I love how the Koreans all blame USFK…
From the S&S article:
“The garrison said the decision was made because of business practices that were charged by the South Korean government and reviewed by Army investigators and the disciplinary control board.”
That means the RoK discovered this and reported it to USFK.
So this shizzat:
“I’m over 60 years old and USFK has damaged my honor.”
Nah man, you did that yourself and the RoK caught you, don’t blame USFK.
More gems:
““I feel this is very unfair because USFK just said we all did this without asking us”
Yes because people are always honest when confronted about their wrongdoings.
“One woman said the ban was unfair because she said the base pass didn’t provide access to facilities but was only useful for the convenience of clients.”
Uh the only time I ever needed the realtor/owner to come on the base was for the lease signing. There’s no convenience for me, hell I’d rather the lazy KGS at housing travel to the realtor rather than have multiple FN’s come on base.
“Another man who refused to identify himself said he got the base pass through a construction company even though he wasn’t an employee. But he said he needed the pass to work hard for his clients and the 10-year ban was too long.”
Yeah, I’ll wager money that guy’s a houseboy. PFC Snuffy’s gonna have to clean his own room from now on I guess.
Krooked asz Korea, I don’t miss it. I’m renting out my 2000 sq/ft house in Hinesville GA to a soldier for $1100/month, BAH there is $1400+.