Tag: fraud

The scammer behind one of the most bizaree crime sprees you will ever read about has been sentenced to 13 years in prison. I have to wonder if a Netflix true crime series about this weird case will be made?:

An appellate court on Thursday sentenced a former fiance of Olympic fencing medalist Nam Hyun-hee to 13 years in prison for swindling dozens of people out of more than 3.5 billion won (US$2.5 million) under the guise of a chaebol heir.

The Seoul High Court handed down the sentence to Jeon Cheong-jo. An appellate court on Thursday sentenced a former fiance of Olympic fencing medalist Nam Hyun-hee to 13 years in prison for swindling dozens of people out of more than 3.5 billion won (US$2.5 million) under the guise of a chaebol heir.

The Seoul High Court handed down the sentence to Jeon Cheong-jo, 28, saying she continued to commit fraud even after being released from prison after serving time for previous fraud convictions, including by disguising herself as a man in order to date famous people.

The ruling adds one year to a lower court’s sentence of 12 years in prison.

“Most of the money was spent on purchasing luxury items, making it difficult to reverse the damage to victims,” the court said, noting a total of 35 people were swindled out of a combined 3.5 billion won., 28, saying she continued to commit fraud even after being released from prison after serving time for previous fraud convictions, including by disguising herself as a man in order to date famous people.

The ruling adds one year to a lower court’s sentence of 12 years in prison.

“Most of the money was spent on purchasing luxury items, making it difficult to reverse the damage to victims,” the court said, noting a total of 35 people were swindled out of a combined 3.5 billion won.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

More legal troubles for former President Moon’s daughter:

Police have secured CCTV footage of a studio apartment owned by former President Moon Jae-in’s daughter as part of an investigation into allegations that she illegally operated a house-sharing business without official declaration, officials said Monday.

The announcement came as police have been conducting a preliminary investigation into suspicions that Moon Da-hye illegally operated her studio apartment in Seoul’s Yeongdeungpo district and a house on the southern Jeju Island for house sharing without the necessary official declaration.

Under the Public Health Control Act, owners of studio apartments, known as “officetel,” must file a declaration with the district office and install the necessary equipment to operate their properties for house sharing.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It is amazing how much money this guy made in just four years selling college entrance exam questions. It makes me wonder how many other teachers are doing this that have not been caught?:

Police have referred an incumbent high school teacher to the prosecution for making college entrance exam questions and selling them to a private cram school for some 250 million won ($ 180,072) over the course of four years, officials said Monday.

The National Office of Investigation (NOI) under the National Police Agency said it has booked 69 people and referred 24 of them initially to the prosecution as part of investigations into the collusive “cartel” ties between public and private education sectors.

A total of 24 such cases are under investigation, officials said.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It is amazing how long this guy was able to get away with this scam and make millions of dollars undetected:

A former Army sergeant was sentenced to three years in prison for defrauding millions of dollars from the service in a rideshare scam using illegally obtained personal information from more than 800 soldiers, the Justice Department announced Tuesday. Kevin Romulus Pelayo, 45, co-owned and operated a rideshare company, Soldiers Vanpools LLC, out of Killeen with his wife, Cristine Furio Fredericks, 40, according to court documents. The company claimed to shuttle military personnel to and from Fort Cavazos, then known as Fort Hood, from Jan. 1, 2014, through June 10, 2020. Killeen is the city just outside the gates of Fort Cavazos.

The rideshare company was funded by the Army’s Mass Transportation Benefit Program, a federal subsidy for government workers to use mass transit, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Western District of Texas. “Pelayo and Fredericks submitted the names, Social Security numbers, and other identifying information of active-duty soldiers to the MTBP on a monthly basis from 2014 to midway through 2020, falsely claiming that the soldiers were active participants in the rideshare program,” according to federal authorities.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but it makes me wonder how many other people defrauded the government using this program and were not caught?

If Korea’ Democratic Party has their way, they want President Yoon’s wife to be in jail with her mother:

The Justice Ministry on Tuesday blocked the early release of President Yoon Suk Yeol’s mother-in-law, who has been serving a one-year prison term for forgery, in its latest round of monthly parole reviews, according to officials close to the matter.

Though Choi Eui-soon, the 77-year-old mother of first lady Kim Keon Hee, was excluded from the latest list of inmates to be released early, she will be reconsidered for next month’s review, under the current law.

Following an hours-long monthly review, the ministry’s Probation and Parole Board decided to “hold off” Choi’s parole, rather than “disallowing” it like they did in February. This allows Choi to be included among the list of inmates eligible for parole review next month, while the previous decision in February had led to her exclusion from the subsequent month’s review held in March.

The ministry has yet to release an official statement on its latest decision.

Choi has been incarcerated at the Dongbu Detention Center in Songpa-gu, southern Seoul since July last year, after an appellate court confirmed her one-year prison sentence for falsifying her bank balance certificate to make it appear as though she had deposited 34.9 billion won ($25.4 million) in the account for a land purchase deal, as well as for purchasing property using other people’s names.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

This whole story sounds like something out of the Onion:

For five years, a man managed to live rent-free in a landmark New York City hotel by exploiting an obscure local housing law.

But prosecutors say Mickey Barreto went too far when he filed paperwork claiming ownership of the New Yorker Hotel building in midtown Manhattan — and tried to charge another tenant rent.

This month, he was arrested and charged with filing false property records. But Barreto, 48, says he was surprised when police showed up at his boyfriend’s apartment with guns and bulletproof shields. As far as he is concerned, it should be a civil case, not a criminal one.

“I said, ‘Oh, I thought you were doing something for Valentine’s Day to spice up the relationship until I saw the female officers,’” Barreto recalled telling his boyfriend.

LA Times

This guy was getting free rent at a $200 a day hotel through a legal loophole for five years and still got greedy and tried to claim ownership of the entire hotel:

Manhattan prosecutors acknowledge that the housing court gave Barreto “possession” of his room. But they say he didn’t stop there: In 2019, he uploaded a fake deed to a city website, purporting to transfer ownership of the entire building to himself from the Holy Spirit Assn. for the Unification of World Christianity, which bought the property in 1976. The church was founded in South Korea by a self-proclaimed messiah, the late Rev. Sun Myung Moon.

Barreto then tried to charge various entities as the owner of the building, “including demanding rent from one of the hotel’s tenants, registering the hotel under his name with the New York City Department of Environmental Protection for water and sewage payments, and demanding the hotel’s bank transfer its accounts to him,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

“As alleged, Mickey Barreto repeatedly and fraudulently claimed ownership of one of the city’s most iconic landmarks, the New Yorker Hotel,” said Manhattan Dist. Atty. Alvin Bragg.

You can read more at the link, but essentially a gay guy uses incompentent New York government to live rent free in a landmark New York hotel for five years and then tries to steal hotel from a notorious religious cult.

The weird scandal involving South Korean Olympic medalist fencer Nam Hyun-hee has apparently come to an end, unless Jeon Cheong-jo can find away to scam her/himself? out of jail:

Jeon Cheong-jo, the 28-year-old former fiance of Olympic fencing medalist Nam Hyun-hee, is moved to the Seoul Eastern District Court for a trial on Feb. 14, 2024. (Yonhap)

A Seoul court sentenced the scandal-ridden former fiance of Olympic fencing medalist Nam Hyun-hee to 12 years in prison on Wednesday on fraud and forgery charges. 

The 28-year-old former fiance, Jeon Cheong-jo, was charged with swindling a total of about 3 billion won (US$2.25 million) from 27 people under the pretext of investment between 2022 and 2023.

Jeon presented herself to the victims as a secret heir to the high-end Paradise Hotel chain, enticing them with false investment opportunities that she portrayed as exclusively reserved for rich conglomerate families, according to investigations.

Jeon gained notoriety after breaking up with Nam, the silver medalist in women’s foil at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, following revelations that Jeon was legally a woman, not an heir to the Paradise Hotel chain and had multiple records of fraud.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The Nam Hyun-hee romance scam just keeps getting weirder after Nam explained on a radio program that she believed she got pregnant by the transgender scammer, Jeon Cheong-jo by her having a testicle transplant from a family member:

Nam Hyun-hee speaks during her appearance on a CBS radio show Monday. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Fencing Olympian and medalist Nam Hyun-hee not only called her ex-fiancé the “devil” but also pleaded innocence regarding her former paramour’s alleged scams. 
  
She even claimed she believed the ex-fiancé had gotten her pregnant using testicles donated by a disabled sibling. 

“While it seemed impossible, I trusted Jeon Cheong-jo’s words that she got a testicle transplant,” the 42-year-old Nam said while appearing on a CBS radio show on Monday.   

Nam told the radio show host that her ex-fiancé said the Paradise Group had another son who was hidden from the public due to disabilities.   

Nam said Jeon told her that she received the testicles from the other son when he became an adult. 

Nam said she was suspicious at first that she’d been impregnated by a person who underwent gender reassignment surgery.   

“Obviously, as I was suspicious, I searched the internet,” Nam said. “But because there were limits [to what you could learn on the internet], I cautiously asked Jeon if it were possible, and she told me that she got a testicle transplant.”   

Nam also said all of the pregnancy tests that she took at home came out positive.  Nam previously said the test kits were pre-opened when she received them from Jeon.  

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Just when you thought you had heard it all then you read this:

Former Olympic medalist Nam Hyun-hee said Thursday that she had been deceived by Jeon Cheong-jo, who was engaged to the 42-year-old fencer before being revealed as a con artist.

Nam, who became the first South Korean woman to win a fencing Olympic medal by winning silver in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, said in a media interview that she learned Wednesday that her boyfriend had swindled money from her acquaintances.

She said Jeon instigated everything in their relationship, including their marriage, and even tricked her into believing that she was pregnant.

Jeon supposedly showed her positive pregnancy tests, despite this being impossible as he was transgender.

In a subsequent interview with local media, Nam said that she had known that Jeon had had sex reassignment surgery. When asked why she thought she could get impregnated by a transgender man, who cannot produce sperm, Nam said she “thought it was strange.”

Korea Herald

Keep reading at the link because it keeps getting stranger.