Ahn, who has done a good job but is on the run, what happened to him?
In April 2011, Ahn of Gimje Chuknyeong Village, North Jeolla Province, was terrified day by day, thinking that his family might be harmed because of him, so he left home and started a fugitive life. He even changed his name to Ahn Se-hyeon, then 52.
Even though he did good things, not bad things, he became a fugitive and stood in front of the camera saying he wanted to tell him everything.
In 2011, the day that all the troubles started goes back to two months ago. Ahn, who used to be an excavator driver, receives a work request to transplant trees. A person who sold the land to another person a year ago asks to transplant his own tree there.
It was not a big deal, so the work continued smoothly. And when the last remaining roots of the mulberry tree were dug, a plastic barrel about the size of an A4 box appeared under the tree, wrapped in a black envelope. Seeing the three cans tightly wrapped in black plastic, Mr. Ahn thought that it was not a big deal and buried the cans again because it was not uncommon for garbage to come out of these works.
But then the last barrel got caught by the excavator's shovel and flew away, and the owner of the tree saw it and threw it in the garbage heap. Up until this point, they had not even imagined. That one barrel is going to cause a huge event.
A few days later, Ahn received a phone call. The person calling is the owner of the field. He said it was important and asked Ahn to meet him right away. However, Ahn was on a business trip, so I couldn't meet him right away, and I met him two months after I contacted him.
The owner of the field asked Mr. Ahn to go to the field together. And I asked him what happened when he cut down the tree. He told Mr. Ahn that the work that day was not much different from his usual work, so he had no memory of anything. Then the owner of the field said, "I buried 700 million won in this field, but it disappeared. You took it, didn't you?" "Do you know what kind of money it is?
Ahn explained that he did not know, and the owner of the field left the place saying he would trust your conscience if that was the case. Ahn told his wife about this story. Then my wife got angry about why I was listening to the thief, and Mr. Ahn thought about it, and started getting angry at the absurd situation.
At this, Ahn met the owner of the field again and asked. Then the owner of the field changed his words, saying, "I buried 1.7 billion won, but 700 million won is gone. Now I have no choice but to talk to the real money owner."
In the end, Ahn immediately reported to the police. The police found it difficult to believe Ahn's words, but it was reported, so they rushed to the scene and met the people involved. But something was strange. The owner of the field was sitting in a corner and his wife started to complain to the police. The owner's wife said, "My husband is crazy. He was talking nonsense."When the police asked to check the scene, he said that he wished not to go.
And after a while, the field owner's wife made a phone call with someone, and immediately handed over the phone to Mr. Ahn. The man with a hoarse voice asked that we move on from this level and clear up the situation. Ahn hung up the phone saying, "I don't understand. I have nothing to talk about with you." And Mr. Ahn felt it. that this is not unusual.
Then, Ann remembered something. And took the police around the field. Ahn remembered that the owner of the tree had dumped the barrel in the garbage heap and found it.
Ahn and the police opened the barrel together. The kimchi container was wrapped in a black envelope. And there were 6,000 copies of 50,000 won bills and 300 million won in it. The police and Mr. Ahn also found a barrel that had been buried in the field. The barrels found in the field contained 1 billion won, 500 million won each.
And the police wondered that the farm owner's son had parked the rented car in an unrelated place, and found another bundle of money in the trunk of the car. 1 billion won came out of the trunk of the car. Afterwards, an additional 115 million won was found in the house of the owner of the field as a result of a search and seizure by the police, and a total of 2.415 billion won was found. This was more money than the first prize in the lottery.
The owner of the field, Mr. Lee, bought the land in Chuknyeong Village about a year ago saying he wanted to live a rural life, and worked hard here. However, it was all camouflage to hide money. They buried the money and planted crops such as garlic on it.
During the police investigation, Mr. Lee revealed that the money was not theirs, but his brother-in-law's money, and that they only kept it. And when he revealed the details of his brother-in-law, the police were astonished.
The brother-in-law of the owner of the field was the operator of an illegal internet gambling site that made a lot of noise two years ago. At that time, the stake was a whopping 115 billion won. They operated the site globally and collected the proceeds from currency exchange fees, resulting in a whopping 15 billion won in crime proceeds.
The younger brother-in-law was sentenced to one year and six months in prison, and the older brother-in-law disappeared with the proceeds. And the police only found 385 million won in their accounts.
Most of the money that disappeared was in the garlic fields. In the garlic field, 7 boxes of 10 kilos of apples and a whopping 168 kilos of cash were poured out. 221,560 copies of a 50,000-won volume came out with 11.78 billion won. When stacked high, it was equivalent to the height of an apartment building on the 10th floor.
As soon as the police investigation began, the brother-in-law of the owner of the field, an illegal gambling site operator, withdrew all the proceeds in cash and entrusted it to his sister and wife. And the couple who kept them became more and more anxious every day, and they paid 100 million won to buy a field and use it as their safe.
Then, why did Mr. Lee, the owner of the field, reveal the existence of money to Mr. Ahn? In fact, Mr. Lee was afraid that his brother-in-law, who was about to be released from prison, would find out about spending money secretly, so he tried to cover it on Mr. Ahn. However, Ja Seung-ja-bak, he had been caught in the trap he had dug.
As a result, all proceeds from the crime were recovered. Ahn, the first public figure in this case, was praised for being recognized for his work and suffered from malicious rumors. Of the 15 billion won of crime proceeds, the money found in the garlic field was about 11 billion won, and the source of about 4 billion won was unknown, so suspicions of Se-hyeon appeared.
The stress on Mr. Ahn and his wife was enormous. Even if they never touched money, people believed only what they wanted to believe. Ahn was also investigated by the police, and as a result, he was innocent. However, the suspicion of being bitten by the tail continued.
And at that moment, Ahn and his family were struck with another fear. The story of a gangster involved in the money in the garlic field. Ahn asked the police for personal protection out of fear. Nevertheless, the anxiety grew so much that he started a life of fugitive life, which caused him to stop all his livelihoods.
The only thing that returned to him was a letter of appreciation from the government and a reward of 2 million won. If the Lost and Found Act had been applied, he could receive a reward of at least 500 million won. However, since what he found was the proceeds of a crime, the Lost and Found Act did not apply.
At that time, there was no standard for reward payment for reporting the proceeds of crime, so it was classified as a case of other social attention and received a reward of 2 million won. His life was shaken by that incident, but he could only receive 2 million won.
Now, 10 years after the incident, Mr. Ahn is quite old and sad. Afterwards, he suffered from liver and colon cancer and had to undergo surgery.
People still tell him about the 11 billion garlic fields.
He said that he did something stupid, and that he would form a collusion and share money, so why did he report it?
However, Ahn said that even if he went back 10 years ago, he would have reported it.
He said, "If I had put my hand on this money and spent 10 won, I wouldn't have been able to live up to its name. I'm not living like this because I reported it," he said with a smile, saying he had no regrets for his actions.
(SBS Entertainment News Editor Kim Hyo-jung)