Seoul:
A South Korean appellate courtroom on Thursday sentenced a former fiance of Olympic fencing medalist Nam Hyun-hee to 13 years in jail for swindling dozens of individuals out of greater than 3.5 billion received ($2.5 million) beneath the guise of a chaebol inheritor.
The Seoul Excessive Court docket handed down the sentence to Jeon Cheong-jo, 28, saying she continued to commit fraud even after being launched from jail after serving time for earlier fraud convictions, together with by disguising herself as a person to be able to date well-known individuals, Yonhap information company reported.
The ruling provides one yr to a decrease courtroom’s sentence of 12 years in jail.
“Many of the cash was spent on buying luxurious gadgets, making it tough to reverse the harm to victims,” the courtroom stated, noting a complete of 35 individuals have been swindled out of a mixed 3.5 billion received.
The courtroom additionally cited a “very excessive threat of a repeat offence”.
Jeon gained notoriety following revelations final yr that she had been engaged to Nam, the silver medalist in ladies’s foil on the 2008 Beijing Olympics, beneath the guise of a person claiming to be an inheritor to the Paradise Resort chain. The couple later broke up.
In September, Jeon was sentenced to an extra 4 years in jail for assaulting and threatening Nam’s nephew, however the appellate courtroom mixed the 2 circumstances at Jeon’s request.
The prosecution had demanded a 20-year jail time period for Jeon.
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