A group of leasing companies who went into hiding without returning tens of billions of won worth of car lease deposits to customers have been handed over to the prosecution.
The Seocho Police Station in Seoul sent 40 people, including Yoo, CEO of a used car sales company A, and comedian Lee Dong-yoon, to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office without detention on charges of fraud on the 31st of last month. They are suspected of going into hiding without returning 24.9 billion won in deposits they received from 797 victims.
With comedian-turned-dealer Lee Dong-yoon at the forefront, the company promoted that if 30-40% of the vehicle's price is paid as a deposit, it will support about half of the monthly payment. It also set a condition that 70-80% of the deposit will be returned when the contract expires.
According to the police investigation, they used a "ponzi fraud" (preventing spin, multi-level financial fraud) method that pays fees differently for each position and prevents existing customers from returning their principal with new customers' deposits. It has been confirmed that the defrauded deposit was used to give to existing customers, making it difficult to confiscate it before prosecution.
Company A is a used car seller established in 2010 and is a large company with branches all over the country. Since 2017, it has been carrying out an auto-lease project that allows customers to rent their own cars during the contract period for only a certain amount of money each month.
Lee Dong-yoon is known to have become a used car dealer to take responsibility for his family's livelihood after the abolition of the "Gag Concert." When the incident became public in December last year, he appeared on TV and YouTube, apologizing, "I'm so sorry to those who trusted me and signed the contract," and explaining, "I didn't know much about the company's system or vehicles."
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