Former Civic Group Staffer Booked for Fraud

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office has indicted the president of H company on the charge of fraud. The 45-year-old suspect surnamed Lee is accused of extorting hundreds of millions of won from photograph businessmen, falsely presenting his company as being affiliated with the Citizens’ Coalition for Economic Justice, one of the nation’s representative civic groups.

After working full-time for seven years from 1994 to 2001 at the coalition, Lee established a wedding agency. According to the prosecution, he pocketed a total of 70 million won as a form of deposit from two people in photograph business, surnamed Jeong and Park, in exchange for the rights to take wedding photographs from 2003 to 2006.

Lee is also charged with racketeering. When Jeong asked Lee to return the deposit because Lee failed to deliver on his promise, Lee, in turn, suggested running business together and borrowed from Jeong 36 million won and never paid back. The prosecution said Lee had extorted an estimated 700 million won.

Lee had a work experience of promoting sound wedding culture while he was with the civic organization. Capitalizing on this experience, he operated a business named “the Center for Sound Wedding of the Citizens’ Coalition for Economic Justice.”

According to the prosecution, the center has nothing to do with the coalition, and Lee deceived the victims as if the coalition directly operated the center.

dnsp@donga.com