The broker who forged the IOU for real estate customers was found not guilty even though his handwriting was different. Why?

A real estate agent accused of forging a real estate customer's loan deed was found not guilty.

According to the legal community on the 23rd, the Nonsan Branch of Daejeon District Court recently found Mr. A, a man in his 60s, not guilty on charges of forgery of private documents and attempted fraud.

Mr. A lent 50 million won in cash several times to Mr. B, who was a real estate customer in 2019.

At the time, the two people signed an IOU and a certificate of promise to pay interest, but Mr. B passed away from a chronic illness the following year.

Afterwards, Mr. B's surviving family sued Mr. A.

The reason was that he created a false IOU even though he had never lent money to Mr. B.

In this process, the bereaved family claimed Mr. A's guilt by submitting a signature evaluation result stating that the handwriting on the certificate did not match Mr. B's.

However, Mr. A immediately denied the charges.

It was claimed that the money was actually lent and that the IOU was prepared according to Mr. B's wishes.

He also explained that he lent tens of millions of won in cash, saying, "Mr. B owned a house and land, and he said, 'I will pay back even if I sell the land,' so I didn't raise any suspicions."

The court found Mr. A not guilty.

The court ruled, “Looking at the evaluation results submitted by the complainant, the handwriting on the IOU is different from Mr. B’s handwriting,” but concluded, “This content alone does not acknowledge that Mr. A signed arbitrarily.”

He continued, "At the time, the IOU had Mr. B's stamp on it. If Mr. A actually forged his handwriting, we need to know how he came to possess the stamp on the IOU, but this cannot be confirmed."

Attorney Byeon Kwan-hoon of Daeryun Law Firm, who represented Mr. A, emphasized, "In the case of forgery of private documents, the 'motive of forgery' is an important basis for judgment. In this case, the IOU was prepared in two separate times. If the purpose of forgery was actually the purpose, there is no reason for Mr. A to prepare it more than twice, a year apart."
 

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

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The broker who forged the IOU for real estate customers is 'not guilty' even though the handwriting and appraisal are different.. Why? (Shortcut)