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After buying hundreds of villas and renting them out, we will inform you of the so-called three-mother and daughter fraud case that later did not return the rental deposit to the tenants.

Prosecutors believed that they had committed crimes in an organized way with the real estate agents, and sent additional sales agents to trial.



Reporter Ahn Hee-jae reported.



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Kim, a mother in her 50s and her two daughters in their 30s, have bought and rented over 500 new villas in southwest Seoul since 2017.



It was a so-called no-capital gap investment in which the sale price was paid using the deposit received from the tenant without spending a single penny of one's own money.



Investigations began as a number of victims were unable to get their deposit back, and it was newly revealed that a real estate agency was systematically involved.



The employees of the sales company worked with their mother Kim, set a price that was higher than the owner's share, and when the deposit came in, they paid the price for the sale and shared the rest with a rebate.



Most of the victims were identified as newcomers and newlyweds, and only 136 were identified.



In addition to Kim, who has already been arrested and charged, the prosecution has handed over four additional people to trial, including the representative of the sales company and its employees.



The two daughters who hid away from the tenants were also investigated and indicted without detention.



There have been over 8,100 incidents of non-return of the deposit for the past two years and eight months, with a total of 1.6 trillion won.



Prosecutors said they would take strict action against charter fraud.



[Hwang Byung-joo / Chief Prosecutor's Office Criminal Division: We will, in principle, detain and investigate criminals who deliberately and actively deceive the victim.]



However, there is no proper remedy.



[Victim of 'three mothers and daughters scam': I think there is a long way to go.

The three mothers and daughters are in a situation where they don't know whether they have money or not...

.

Even the owner of the building should be investigated to relieve the victims (I think)]



The prosecution plans to further investigate whether there is any collusion, considering that some of the clients also took unfair advantage.



(Video coverage: Seol Min-hwan, video editing: Won-yang)