Source: Korea JoongAng Daily

The Busan District Court’s Eastern Branch convicted a man of fraud and forgery and sentenced the defendant to seven years in prison. The sentence exceeded prosecutors’ six-year request, with the judge citing the danger of the defendant’s document-forgery methods. According to the report, the defendant obtained 377 million won from two victims while posing as a doctor and businessman with billions of won in assets. The defendant used AI to fabricate a certificate indicating that the defendant had passed the national medical licensing examination, along with cryptocurrency trading records. Other forged documents included bank balance certificates, financial transaction records and an official prosecution notice falsely stating that the case had been dropped.

When prosecutors initially sought an arrest warrant for fraud, the defendant used AI to fabricate a certificate showing an account balance exceeding 900 million won, although the account held 23 won. The defendant submitted the certificate through the defendant’s lawyer and claimed that funds could be secured to repay the victims; the court rejected the warrant request. Further prosecutorial investigation exposed the false certificate, and the defendant was taken into custody after a court granted a second warrant request. At sentencing, the judge noted that the victims remained uncompensated and had not forgiven the defendant. The judge described the indiscriminate fabrication of public and private documents as extremely dangerous and relied on that assessment to justify the longer prison term.