Attorney Shim Jae-guk: “If you make unreasonable gap investments and fail, you could be punished for fraud.”

These days, it is becoming more and more difficult to purchase a home due to financial authorities tightening loans and increasing base interest rates. As gap investment began to emerge in earnest in 2013, it has received attention as it allows people to buy their own home or invest in real estate with relatively little money.

However, the mother of three in the gap investment fraud case was recently arrested and handed over to trial. If many people are only interested in market gains and invest hastily without knowing the risks, they can soon become suspects on fraud charges.

Gap investment is an investment method of purchasing a house with a small difference between the sale price and the deposit for the purpose of making capital gains. For example, if the jeonse price for a house worth 600 million won is 550 million won, you can buy the house for 50 million won with the jeonse included. Although you can make a big profit from market gains, there is no guarantee that the market price will rise, so if you fail to return the deposit to the tenant, you are likely to be punished for gap investment fraud.

If a person is found guilty of fraud and is punished, he or she will be subject to imprisonment for up to 10 years or a fine of up to 20 million won. However, in the case of fraud related to gap investment, there are many cases where dozens of people are harmed, and most damages exceed hundreds of millions. Therefore, the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes, rather than the Criminal Act, is applied, resulting in more severe punishment.

If the profit obtained through fraud is more than 500 million won but less than 5 billion won, the person will be sentenced to more than 3 years in prison. If the amount of damage exceeds 5 billion won, the person will be sentenced to more than 5 years to life imprisonment.

However, there may be some unfairness from the suspect's perspective as well. If it is said that there was a malicious intention to cause damage through fraud from the beginning, this should naturally be severely punished, but if it is said that the deposit was not returned due to unintentional investment failure or difficult circumstances, it may be unfair to receive legal action.

In order to escape criminal disposition, you must prove that you had the will and ability to fulfill your obligations when entering into a contract. In other words, if he had the economic power and means to cover the money, he did not intend to deceive others or gain financial gain. Therefore, it must be argued that there was no intention to steal the tenant's money at the time, and that it was unintentionally unable to return it due to the decline in market prices.

If you are unintentionally but unfairly accused and are at risk of being punished for gap investment fraud, you may need to seek help from a criminal lawyer who can provide a legal perspective and a valid defense.

Help: Attorney Shim Jae-guk of Daeryun Law Firm

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