GIs have been dealing with shady landlords for decades, but in my opinion things have actually improved though it appears foreign students are now a bigger target:
Some landlords are targeting international students.
International students here are increasingly falling victim to real estate-related fraud.
In one case, a Vietnamese student, 28, didn’t get her room deposit of 5 million won back because her landlord said she didn’t pay any monthly rent. But she claimed she paid six months’ rent in a lump sum but didn’t receive a receipt.
“The real estate procedure is complicated for international students,” one Chinese international student, surnamed Jing, told Dong-A Ilbo. “And it is harder to understand the jargon when they speak in Korean.”
Foreign students, now numbering 120,000 here, often fall victim to the fraud.
The paper cites four types. The first is a makeshift contract. Instead of a standard template contract, the landlords arbitrarily draw up one that does not protect the rights of foreign tenants.
The second is the cash transaction.
The third is the imposition of repair costs on the tenants. In the second and third cases, the landlord tries to take advantage of the foreign students’ inability to speak Korean or lack of related knowledge.
The fourth is a conflict when a student sublets a room to another tenant without a contract, which a landlord can use as an excuse to eject the tenants. [Korea Times]
Assuming all these charges are true, I tend to think people like this have been doing shady stuff their whole career, but just now finally got caught:
Lt. Col. Christopher DeMure (left) takes command of JBER’s 3rd Battalion, 509th Infantry Regiment on Aug. 30, 2016. (Credit: From 4/25 Facebook page)
The head of an Army unit stationed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson is charged with filing nearly half a million dollars in fraudulent insurance claims spanning more than three years.
Lt. Col. Christopher DeMure, 40, faces charges of mail and wire fraud as well as money laundering in the case, according to U.S. Attorney for Alaska, Bryan Schroder’s office. DeMure – commander of the 3rd Battalion, 509th Infantry Regiment within the 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division – allegedly made over $475,000 in false claims and received nearly $400,000 from September 2014 to February of this year.
U.S. Army Alaska spokesman John Pennell confirmed DeMure’s status as commander of the battalion, which recently returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan, but he referred all other questions about the case to Schroder’s office.
According to charging documents, DeMure’s scheme involved claims made to military insurer USAA Federal Savings Bank as well as American Express on at least seven separate occasions. In one incident, he allegedly claimed more than $215,000 in false losses from a U-Haul van he said was burglarized in July 2016 when he moved to JBER from Fort Benning, Ga. [KTVA News 11]
You can read much more at the link, but once again assuming all of this is true, LTC DeMure must have thought USAA was stupid and would not catch on to his fraud claims. You would think he would at least try to make fraudulent claims with different insurance companies instead of making them all with USAA which makes it easier to detect.
I am always amazed how people keep falling for these scams:
A Malaysian man has been jailed for a year over a fake kidnapping phone scam.
The man, 37, was caught in January after making a phone call to a randomly selected person in Ulsan on Jan. 8. He told the receiver that he had kidnapped his daughter and demanded 27 million won ($25,399) ransom.
The father wired the money but soon realized he had been duped. He reported the incident to police, who caught the suspect days after.
The Malaysian was found to be a member of a domestic voice phishing syndicate. The suspect told police he took 500,000 won from the wired money and shared the rest with his colleagues. Police are looking for other people involved. [Korea Times]
Picture of construction during the Camp Humphreys expansion project.
South Korean prosecutors have raided the offices of one of the nation’s largest conglomerates amid allegations it offered multimillion-dollar kickbacks to the US Army in exchange for construction contracts.
Dozens of investigators were dispatched to the headquarters of SK Engineering and Construction in downtown Seoul on Friday to confiscate computer hard disks, documents and other material related to construction projects at a new US army base in South Korea’s Pyeongtaek county.
The prosecutors are investigating allegations that the company — an affiliate of the nation’s third-largest conglomerate, SK — gave almost $3m to a US army officer in 2010 to steer a $420m dollar construction contract in its favour.
The officer, Duane Nishiie of the US Army Engineers Corp, was indicted in September in Hawaii on charges including bribery, wire fraud and money laundering related to the case. Lee Seung-ju, a former officer in the procurement department of Seoul’s defence ministry, was indicted on the same charges.
SK Engineering and Construction declined to comment. US Forces Korea was not immediately available to comment.
“The raid was needed to look into the bribery claims linked to a US military contract,” the prosecutor in charge of the investigation told the Financial Times. [The Financial Times]
If this woman was able to so easily fool the VA for years to receive benefit money it just makes me wonder how much more fraud is going on?:
A woman faked the birth of a son to collect the veterans benefits for 17 years, according to court documents.
The man who the woman claimed was the father of the child was killed in High Point in 2006.
Elizabeth Hayes Cox, 60, claimed she gave birth to the son of Randall Cox, who was a military veteran receiving Veterans Administration benefits, according to an indictment. Records show she claimed Randall Cox’s benefits should be paid to her for child support, and she fraudulently collected $103,000 in benefits from March 2000 through May of this year. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read the rest at the link, but you would think the VA would ask for something as simple as a birth certificate to prove her claim?
This is an example of why I never use a credit card in a bar or restaurant when traveling overseas. Scams like this I remember were common in the villes outside US military bases back in the day:
A promise of a fun night out at a bar in Itaewon left an American tourist with a booze tab totaling 17 million won ($15,000).
Seoul police said on Thursday owners and employees at three bars in Itaewon, Yongsan-gu, have been indicted without detention for overcharging foreign tourists.
One of the indicted bar owners, surnamed Lee, allegedly charged an American tourist 17 million won for drinks he had during his one hour and 40 minutes stay at the bar.
The tourist found out about this overcharging only after returning to the US and receiving his credit card bill.
Two other indicted bar owners allegedly conspired to rip charge a German tourist about 7.9 million won.
The police are investigating whether the bar owners deliberately intoxicated the tourist, as traces of zolpidem and other narcotics were found in his hair. [Korea Herald]
What I learned from this article is that if you commit fraud under a religious pretext it is perfectly legal. By the way who knew being a shaman could be so lucrative?:
A shaman who was taken to court on charges of fraud was ruled not guilty by the Seoul Southern District Court on Wednesday.
“Shamanism is, for the most part, aimed at gaining consolation and inner peace. Even if shamanistic rituals do not yield the promised outcome, it is difficult to hold the shaman accountable for the failure,” the court said.
The shaman in the case had blamed the spirits of the victim’s aborted twin babies for her husband’s flagging business and suggested the victim appease the spirit babies through special rituals.
The prosecution accused the shaman of fraud for carrying out an excessive number of rituals and charging over 560 million won ($499,000). The shaman provided 133 rituals in the period between January 2011 and December 2015. During the time, she sent mobile text messages to the alleged victim using baby talk as if she was possessed with the twins’ spirits.
The text messages read, “I know how you feel mommy. Please don’t feel sad. We love you,” “We ate loads of the meat you sent us. We love it very much.” [Korea Herald]
It is amazing to me that one employee would have access to this much money to embezzle:
A major European conglomerate says one of its employees in South Korea has gone missing — along with $100 million.
Power and robotics firm ABB (ABB) announced Wednesday that it has “uncovered a sophisticated criminal scheme” at its South Korean unit. It only noticed the huge sums had been stolen after the employee of the subsidiary disappeared about two weeks ago.
The employee, who ABB has not identified, is suspected of forging documents and working with individuals outside the company to steal the money, according to ABB and South Korean police.
A police spokesman said that the suspect is believed to have fled to Hong Kong and that they are working with Interpol to bring him back to South Korea. Interpol declined to comment on the investigation.
The embezzlement and misappropriation of funds is limited to South Korea, where ABB employs about 800 staff, the company said. Other people could still come under investigation. [CNN via a reader tip]
You can read more at the link, but the guy behind the theft was the person responsible for ensuring legal and ethical integrity:
The executive, named by a source in South Korea as Oh Myeong-se, was treasurer and one of two integrity ombudsmen for ABB Korea – to whom staff were supposed to report any ethical concerns – according to an online company magazine available on ABB’s Korean website.
He was also the head of compliance at ABB in Korea until 2010, said a source familiar with the investigation, a role that carries responsibility for maintaining legal and ethical integrity.
The executive is suspected of forging documents and colluding with third parties to steal funds, ABB said, estimating it would take a pre-tax charge of about $100 million for the affair, which analysts said raised concerns about its corporate oversight. [Reuters]
It will be interesting to see who else is tied to this crime because I would be surprised if this guy was able to embezzle and move this much money all on his own.
This is a lot of money and a lot of people who were scammed:
Police arrested a group of people with hearing disabilities for allegedly pulling off a fraud scheme and snatching some 28 billion won ($24 million) from about 500 deaf people in Changwon, South Gyeongsang, on Thursday.
The Changwon Jungbu Police Precinct found that eight people with hearing disabilities allegedly told their victims from 2010 to 2016 that if they invested in a real estate development project to build apartments and factories, they would receive three to five times the amount of their investment within three months.
They also allegedly told victims that if the project proved successful, they would be granted expensive cars and pensions in return. Many of the victims borrowed money to make the investments.
These eight suspects, arrested for fraud and organized crime, and their roughly 500 alleged victims all belong to the same private online association of deaf people. Authorities found that the suspects and victims communicated via a group account on a mobile and internet app for non-public communications called Naver Band. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
One of the Army’s most promising generals will be demoted to one star and retired following a scandal that involved sex clubs in Seoul and Rome, high-priced booze and indiscretions with young female troops, the Army announced Thursday.
Ron Lewis, who had been a three-star general and top aide to the then-Defense secretary Ash Carter, will also lose about $10,000 a year in pension payments due to the demotion.
The Pentagon Inspector General “substantiated allegations that Maj. Gen. Lewis misused his government travel charge card for personal expenses, made false official statements regarding his (credit card) misuse, and engaged in conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman on multiple occasions,” Cynthia Smith, an Army spokeswoman, said in a statement. (……)
Army investigators found that Lewis spent more than $1,100 in April 2015 during a visit to the “Candy Bar” in Seoul. The bar, in the city’s red-light district known as “Hooker Hill,” had been deemed off limits to troops. When questioned about the charge, Lewis denied it was his, the Pentagon challenged the expense and got him a new card. [Stars & Stripes]
