37 customers deceived with promises of discounts, gift vouchers

Former LG Electronics store employee convicted of fraud totaling 639.21 million won

Sentenced to 3 years, 6 months on appeal

A home appliance display at a hypermarket in Seoul. This image is not directly related to the article. [Yonhap]
A home appliance display at a hypermarket in Seoul. This image is not directly related to the article. [Yonhap]

A former LG Electronics store employee who defrauded customers — including couples shopping for wedding appliances — out of more than 600 million won ($435,000) was sentenced to three years and six months in prison on appeal.

Chief Judge Jung Woo-seok of the Seoul Northern District Court's Criminal Appeals Division 2 handed down the sentence Friday morning to the defendant, identified only by his surname Yang, 42, who had been indicted on fraud charges.

Yang is accused of defrauding 37 customers of a combined 639.21 million won between July and October last year while working at an LG Electronics Best Shop branch in Dongdaemun-gu, promising discount and refund benefits that he never delivered.

He collected payments upfront by telling customers he would refund their original charges if they paid again with an affiliated card, and induced additional payments and direct bank transfers into his personal account by claiming eligibility for government rebates and employee discounts.

Couples preparing to furnish their first homes were among those deceived. In one case, Yang told a customer that purchasing a set of wedding appliances would entitle them to a 1.35 million won refund, 500,000 reward points and gift vouchers worth 800,000 won — then collected 13 million won from the victim.

At the time, Yang had neither the intention nor the means to sell the products legitimately or return the money. The funds he collected were used to pay off existing debts in a revolving scheme and to finance personal gambling, according to the court.

Yang had received sentences of two years and six months and one year respectively in two separate first-instance trials, and appealed both. Prosecutors also appealed part of the case, and the appellate court consolidated the two proceedings before issuing a single combined sentence.

The court said mitigating factors included Yang's acknowledgment of and remorse for his crimes, the fact that his actual financial gain was less than the total amount defrauded, and his lack of a prior criminal record.

However, the court said Yang "exploited his role as a home appliance salesperson to induce victims into upfront payments, additional payments and transfers into his personal account, defrauding them of approximately 640 million won in total," adding that "the nature of the offense is poor given the number of incidents and the scale of the damage."

The court also noted that while LG Electronics appeared to have compensated the victims, Yang himself had taken no meaningful steps toward restitution, and that the head of the company he worked for had filed a petition for a severe sentence, citing significant losses.


jookapooka@heraldcorp.com