[The Power = Reporter Yoo Yeon-soo] Amid the recent economic downturn, many people are suffering great losses by being involved in financial crimes such as investment fraud and embezzlement. Fraud is a crime under criminal law that involves deceiving someone to receive property or obtain financial gain. The crime of embezzlement refers to the act of a person who keeps another person's property using the property for personal use or refusing to return it.
Investment fraud is mainly a method of promising to multiply the investment amount by using stocks or coins as bait, or guaranteeing high returns by doubling the investment amount because there is a promising new business item. The most important factor in establishing a ‘crime of fraud’ is proving ‘an act of deception’, that is, intentional deception.
Therefore, the core basis for admitting fraud charges is not simply that investors did not receive their investment money back, but that there was no possibility of profit due to the business structure in the first place, and that it revealed the embezzlement of deliberately attracting investment funds and then using them arbitrarily.
Typical acts of deception include cases where an agreement is made to distribute a certain amount of profits as profits instead of using the investment funds for a specific purpose, cases where it is impossible to generate profits due to the business structure, falsification of documents to make it appear that the investment funds and profits have been performed, and cases where the investment funds are used for purposes other than investment. These are easy to prove as embezzlement by simply checking the flow of the investment funds.
Basically, fraud is punishable by up to 10 years in prison or a fine of up to 20 million won under the criminal law, but the larger the amount of profit obtained, the more severe the punishment. In accordance with the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes, if the amount of gain through fraud is 500 million won or more but less than 5 billion won, the person is punished by imprisonment for a fixed term of 3 years or more, and if the amount of gain through fraud is more than 5 billion won, the person is punished by imprisonment of 5 years or more or life imprisonment.
Attorney Lee Il-kwon of Daeryun Law Firm (Limited) said, “For investment-related fraud, it is necessary to objectively reveal with evidence what part is deception, what the resulting damage is, and what is the causal relationship between deception and damage, etc.” He added, “From the process of attracting investors and investment money to the actual investment, it is necessary to carefully understand whether the requirements for fraud are met and then devise a specific strategy, so a criminal and financial lawyer with extensive experience in fraud cases is required. “We must receive assistance to prove fraud damage and minimize damage to investment funds,” he advised.
View full article - If you are involved in a criminal case such as financial investment fraud or embezzlement where investment funds are used arbitrarily,
