Jeon Cheong-jo indicted for $2.3M fraud

Jeon Cheong-jo, ex-fiancé of Olympic fencer Nam Hyun-hee, was indicted on fraud charges along with an accomplice who pretended to be her bodyguard. The duo is accused of swindling $2.3 million from 27 people.

Jeon Cheong-jo speaks to reporters in front of the Songpa Police Station in eastern Seoul before being transferred to the prosecution on Nov.10. [YONHAP]

Jeon Cheong-jo, the ex-fiancé of Olympian fencer Nam Hyun-hee, and an accomplice who pretended to be Jeon’s bodyguard were indicted on fraud charges on Wednesday.

Jeon, who impersonated a hidden heir to a well-known conglomerate and a major shareholder of a NASDAQ-listed company, and her supposed “bodyguard” swindled 3 billion won ($2.3 million) from 27 people, according to the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors' Office.

Jeon has been detained since Nov. 3 for allegedly violating the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes.

The pair are said to have deceived victims by promising to offer a “conglomerate-exclusive” investment opportunity.

Jeon also faces forgery charges.

An image posted to Nam Hyun-hee's Instagram account showing Jeon Cheong-jo's forged ID. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

She is accused of using a false governmental ID card that classified her biological sex as male. She also falsely edited and used a service contract issued by a CEO who she claimed was her relative.

“Jeon impersonated the third-generation child of a Korean conglomerate family and acted like she could grant rare investment opportunities that commoners could never meet,” the prosecution said.

“With her bodyguard-pretender involved, this duo ripped off a huge amount of funds.”

More than 90 percent of the victims are in their 20s and 30s. Jeon targeted them through social media and by providing lectures about investment opportunities.

“Jeon maliciously appropriated the fact that her targets are mostly young and less experienced” the authority added.

Parents of students at Nam's academy were also impacted.

Jeon Cheong-jo holds a cup with two bodyguards looking after her security. [JOONGANG PHOTO]

“Jeon and her bodyguard robbed the young victims’ seed money. Some victims even relied on unscrupulous lending with abnormally high interest rates [to make an investment]. They now face a situation of paying back 2 million won each month to those loan sharks,” an official from the prosecution said.

Jeon had introduced herself to targets as the scion of a Korean conglomerate. She invited victims to her leased property, where she purported to live an extravagant lifestyle, and gave them rides in a borrowed supercar.

She rented a Signiel Residence for three months and paid 35 million won per month.

She also booked and stayed at upper-class suites and penthouses in a five-star hotel, to which she invited her victims. The hotel is owned by the conglomerate family to whom she claimed to be related.

She hired bodyguards and journalist-pretenders to present herself convincingly. She occasionally used Konglish, a sublanguage where English expressions are mixed into Korean sentences, to be seen as a person who spent most of her time abroad.

The investigation found that the indicted bodyguard-pretender managed transactions of more than 2.1 billion won. The luxury car and Signiel Residence were leased under the bodyguard’s name.

The bodyguard even wrapped and decorated his credit card such that it appeared to be an exclusive card only available to high-net-worth individuals.

The bodyguard also acquired 200 million won from the swindled funds.

The prosecution will put their efforts into restoring victims’ damages and losses, as well as digging out any additional crimes committed by Jeon and her collaborator.

Nam Hyun-hee in a white t-shirt, left and Jeon Cheong-jo in a black hoodie. [NEWS1]

Nam was booked as a suspect on Nov. 6 and has since been under police investigation. Police are conducting digital forensic analysis on her mobile phone to find out whether she was involved in the crime.

However, Nam has denied all of the accusations.

She has claimed that she was one of Jeon's many victims and filed a complaint against Jeon and Jeon’s mother on Oct. 31. She also voluntarily surrendered luxury items, including a designer bag and a Bentley SUV she'd received from Jeon, to the police.

BY SHIN HYE-YEON, LEE SOO-JUNG [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]