Translated SeungYeon Woo / Written By Myung sool Chang




A broker of a lending company has disappeared after collecting money from Korean business owners, none of whom are wealthy, through persuading them to help borrow lump sum money.”

The suspect, a Korean man who calls himself John, set up a bogus company, tentatively named ‘Hope Consulting’. Recently, some Korean businesses desperately needed to borrow emergency funds due to the difficulty of getting bank loans. John cleverly used this fact to swindle them. He has now disappeared with about $14,000.

The man seems to be in 50s, his height is about 5’ 5’’,he has a pot-belly and has a cast on his right arm.

John, the fraudulent lender from Philadelphia, had been dealing with Korean businesses through a newspaper advertisement, and he never revealed the location of his office or company.When he was asked about where he receives loans from, he lied to his customers by mentioning about a secondary money market, operated by Jews, or about the possibility of borrowing money from a bank.

One of the Korean business owners, Oh, who owns a shop inside Stop & Shop, contacted John through a newspaper advertisement about lending loans and met him near Dunkin Donuts. The suspect, who understood Oh’s situation, told him that he would make a ‘credit line’for Oh and asked him to give the business tax identification number, a bank statement, 2 blank checks for 5% commission and first month’s payment. He promised that he did not deposit those checks until the credit line is approved.

Mr. and Mrs. Oh were suspicious of John but they handed him over the checks anyway. After a month, they found out a large amount of money had been withdrawn from their account and they finally reported this to the Providence police after realizing that the money had been charged at a Korean nail shop near Boston.

The Korean nail shop near Boston, owned by Ms. Kim, was also a victim of John’s outrageous crime. Ms. Kim also asked John about loans through a phone call. They met in a Dunkin Donuts near the shop and John again wanted Kim’s business tax ID number and address. John then told her that she would have a better chance to have the loan when her credit score was over 700, and that they should do something to raise the credit score.

Ms. Kim wanted $50,000 for a business and personal loan. The suspect visited herfor the second time and told her about creating a credit line from a Jewish bank that allows repayment in 3 years. He asked her to hand over a bank statement, 2blank checks (one business and one personal) and also 2 deposit slips. John claimed that to make a deposit and withdrawal would be the way to raise her credit. Kim, who had heard that her friend from New York had borrowed money from a broker who did the same practice as John did, did not doubt it.

The next day, John called Kim and said,“I deposited money. Give me back the same amount in cash tomorrow morning and do not check the online account tonight because there might be a problem with credit.” Despite her curiosity, the next morning Kim finally checked that the money was in and gave the suspect $11,000 in cash. Nevertheless, Kim soon found out that the checks from 4 people had been suspended and reported to the police right away. Also she discovered that his check had been cashed at a laundry in northern Boston..

Mr. Cha, the owner of the laundry north of Boston, was another victim. He was also swindled by the same suspect using the same methods. He lost about $3,000 in cash. Another Korean owner from a food shop west of Boston has also handed over 2 blank checks to the suspect, but he fortunately avoided the pecuniary damage. Currently there are 4 related victims but only 2 of them are the actual ones; however, it is possible that there are more than these victims.

The suspect is vanished after he took checks from 4 Korean businessmen, deposited to 2 people then cashed out from these 2 victims. It is likely that he understands well the practice of Korean brokers lending money in New York and he is also familiar with the fact that banks allow money to be available for 2 days and then clear checks later.

While the police of two towns in Massachusetts are investigating this event, they are pointing out a problem that the Korean victims are also at fault, since they gave money to the suspect who had not supplied accurate identification..

One of the police officers, Tom Torrise, emphasized that, “When a money lender doesn’t have accurate information about his identification and his company, you should not trust him at any point.”

ⓒ 보스톤코리아(http://www.bostonkorea.com), 무단전재 및 재배포 금지