ORGANIZED CRIME CHARGES FOR RENT SCAMS

[Anchor Lead]

There is something as important as the government's measures to support victims of rental frauds. It's to hold the scammers accountable. Prosecutors and police have decided to apply organized crime charges against systematic rental frauds. The government will now be able to confiscate the proceeds of crime and redistribute them to the victims.

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The so-called "construction king" surnamed Nam, who committed rental scams in the city of Incheon, has been sued by 944 people. The amount of damage is estimated at 70 billion won. Nam claimed he would repay his tenants' deposits after selling his properties worth 800 billion won, but prosecutors found only 800 million won worth of his assets can be confiscated. Moreover, they can only be seized if Nam is charged with violating the Licensed Real Estate Agents Act, not with fraud.

[Soundbite] An Sang-mi(Committee on rental scams in Michuhol-gu Dist.) : "Nam has hidden many assets, but there’s no way we can find them. We only know through word of mouth. The gov‘t should be able to locate them."

Prosecutors and police have decided to apply organized crime charges to organized rental scams. Following the first indictment of an organized ring that received a 7 billion won loan using fake jeonse contracts to commit fraud, the investigators are also considering applying the same charge to Nam and his 61 accomplices.

[Soundbite] Woo Jong-soo(Nat'l Police Agency) : "We will investigate all suspects and apply organized crime charges to the perpetrators of organized rental scams."

If rental scam perpetrators are charged with organized crime, the government will set up a taskforce to ferret out their hidden assets. When a court verdict is issued, the seized criminal proceeds will be distributed to the victims. However, the charge will likely be applied on a limited basis only when there is clear proof that the perpetrators formed an organization for criminal purposes.

[Soundbite] Kim Ye-rim(Lawyer specializing in real estate crimes) : "The fact that multiple people conspired or a real estate agent was involved in rental scams is not enough to prove an organized crime objectively."

Organized crime charges, which used to apply mostly to organized violent crimes, were first recognized in a phone scam case in 2017 and a used car fraud case in 2020.