Civil servants who extorted $1 million with fake rape scheme loses appeal, sentenced to 6 years

Suwon High Court in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province / Courtesy of Suwon High Court

South Korean civil servants who lured a frequently blacked-out colleague into a trap involving a woman posing as a sexual assault victim, and extorted over 1.5 billion won ($1.08 million), have lost their appeal and will serve up to six years in prison.

On Friday, the Suwon High Court’s Criminal Division 3, presided over by Chief Judge Kim Jong-gi, upheld the original sentence for the public official, identified as A, and his accomplice B. In the initial trial in February, A received six years in prison, while B was sentenced to two years.

“This case involved the exploitation of criminal justice procedures for financial gain and displays extremely poor moral character,” the appeals court said. “Defendant A has shown no genuine effort to compensate the victim and continues to deny the charges with implausible excuses, despite not being forgiven.”

While B reportedly repaid part of the money, the court said it was not enough to warrant a reduced sentence given the overall scale of the fraud.

According to court findings, between 2012 and 2013, A and B called a senior colleague — identified as C — to a restaurant where they had arranged for a woman to join them for drinks. Knowing C often experienced memory loss when intoxicated, they waited until he was drunk before claiming the woman was preparing to report him to police for rape. They threatened legal action unless C paid a settlement, ultimately extorting over 900 million won.

From 2017 to 2018, they repeated the scheme, this time claiming the woman’s parents were alleging the rape of a minor and demanding 1 billion won to remain silent. They extracted an additional 660 million won through this second hoax.

Investigators revealed that B recruited the women involved, orchestrated the drinking sessions, and helped stage the scenes leading to C’s compliance. A then impersonated a mediator or legal informant, warning of imminent police reports to pressure C into paying.

The court emphasized that the pair had deliberately targeted C’s vulnerabilities — his memory loss and fondness for female company — and executed a calculated plan with assigned roles to deceive and defraud him.

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.