“I will invest on your behalf.” A man in his 50s accused of fraud of hundreds of millions of won is found not guilty by the Supreme Court.

A man in his 50s who was accused of defrauding an acquaintance of hundreds of millions of won worth of investment money was found not guilty by the Supreme Court.

According to the legal community on the 7th, the 3rd Division of the Supreme Court confirmed the original verdict that acquitted Mr. A, in his 50s, who was recently indicted on fraud charges, on appeal.

Mr. A was brought to trial on charges of receiving and embezzling 260 million won as investment money from his acquaintance, Mr. B, over a period of four years since 2016.

In relation to this, Mr. A pleaded not guilty, saying, “We were unable to return the principal due to investment failure and had no intention of deceiving the victim.”

The first trial court found that Mr. A had intentional fraud and sentenced him to one year in prison.

The judgment was, “He made an investment with a high risk of principal loss without informing him of the detailed circumstances, and deceived the victim by thinking he would guarantee the principal even though he did not have sufficient ability to repay the principal in case of investment failure.”

However, the second trial court declared him not guilty, saying, “It was not proven beyond reasonable doubt that Mr. A had the intention to deceive the victim.”

First, the second trial court explained that it cannot be acknowledged that Mr. A proceeded to commit a deceptive act under the criminal law solely based on the fact that he promised to guarantee the principal.

In order to be punished for fraud, Mr. A must deceive the victim by providing false information about a specific investment destination or investment method, but it is judged that such circumstances did not exist.

The court also pointed out that "the victim naturally came to trust the defendant as he earned high profits of 7-8% from the investment product he had subscribed to at the defendant's recommendation in the past, and accordingly, there was an aspect in which he voluntarily paid the investment money."

At the same time, it was added that it was also taken into account that Mr. A only used the money he received from the victim for actual investment purposes and paid 80 million won worth of agreed interest on the investment money for about four years before the stock investment failed.

The prosecution immediately appealed the second trial ruling, but the Supreme Court dismissed it and confirmed the original trial's not guilty verdict.

Attorney Song Eui-seok of Daeryun Law Firm, who acted as legal representative for Mr. A, explained, "In property crimes, there is a need to clearly distinguish between default on debt and fraud under civil law," adding, "The promise to return the principal made between the two in this case has no meaning beyond the burden of civil debt."

Reporter Jeong Eui-jin (jej88@ikbc.co.kr)

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"I will invest on your behalf"... 50-year-old accused of fraud of hundreds of millions of won found 'not guilty' by Supreme Court (Go)