A man who conducted illegal loans targeting vulnerable populations unable to use financial services and amassed approximately $4.7 million by charging interest rates up to 122 times the legal limit has been sentenced to prison.
On the 6th, Judge Mok Myung Gyun of the 17th Single Criminal Division of the Busan District Court revealed that he sentenced a man in his 50s, indicted for violating the Act on Registration of Credit Businesses and Protection of Financial Users, to two years and eight months in prison and a hefty fine of $1.4 million.
According to the criminal facts acknowledged by the court, he lent around $1,100 after deducting fees and pre-interest and collected $590 in interest over eight days. From August 2021, he repeated this process 59 times for three months, earning over $44,500 in interest.
From November 2021 to July 2023, in collusion with his son and others, he lent $500 after deducting fees and pre-interest and received $335 in interest over 15 days. He repeated this process 5,053 times, collecting over $4.7 million in interest.
The annual interest rate he applied ranged from a minimum of 1,622%, 81 times the current legal maximum interest rate of 20%, to a maximum of 2,456%, more than 122 times.
Judge Mok explained the reason for the sentence: “The man exploited the situation of the economically weak individuals who had no choice but to use private finance and amassed significant profits. The victims who had to pay such high interest rates likely suffered considerable mental and economic distress.”