A builder and his gang who stole 26 billion won in deposits for apartments and villas in Incheon were arrested by the police.
The Metropolitan Investigation Unit of the Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency announced that they had applied for arrest warrants for five people, including a 61-year-old builder A, on charges of fraud and violation of the Act on the Registration of the Owner of Real Estate Rights.
The police also booked without detention 46 accomplices, including a real estate agent and a 'pants rental business', who were involved in the crime.
Mr. A and others are suspected of receiving and intercepting 26.6 billion won in jeonse deposits from tenants for 327 houses, including apartments and villas in Michuhol-gu, Incheon, from March of last year to July of last year.
It was investigated that they had made a charter contract unreasonably even though there was a possibility that their apartment or villa would be auctioned off due to worsening financial conditions since last year.
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Some of the accomplices caught this time are pants renters who lent their names to Mr. A and leased them to tenants in their names.
The actual owner of all 327 houses where charter fraud occurred was Mr. A.
The police set up a dedicated team and launched an investigation after a series of complaints of suspected charter fraud in the Michuhol-gu area from last July, and revealed the existence of Mr. A hidden behind the pants rental companies.
The police plan to expand the investigation by continuing to investigate additional complaints related to Mr. A's gang.
A police official explained, "When signing a charter contract, you need to check the rights relationship through a copy of the real estate register, and you need to be careful about the possibility of future auctions for houses that have been set up as a mortgage."
(Photo = Yonhap News)