A hospital official who defrauded the developer of a new building and stole hundreds of millions of won in the name of interior design fees was sentenced to prison.

Hospital officials who embezzled hundreds of millions of won for interior design costs from a new building developer by promising to open a hospital were sentenced to prison.

According to the legal community on the 5th, the Criminal Division 1 of the Cheonan Branch of the Daejeon District Court (Chief Judge Cho Young-jin) sentenced former hospital administrative director A, who was indicted on charges of violation of the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes (fraud), to 3 years and 6 months in prison, and doctor B to 1 year in prison.

They signed a lease contract with a developer promising to open a hospital in a newly built shopping complex in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi-do in 2021, and were handed over to trial on charges of embezzling 1.6 billion won for Mr. A and 200 million won for Mr. B in support expenses for interior construction.

Those who were running a hospital in the same area committed a crime by taking advantage of the fact that when a new building was being built, the developer was trying to attract the hospital even by providing subsidies to increase the selling price of the building.

Mr. A and others promised to the representative of the commercial development company, "If we provide 2.25 billion won, including interior costs, we will open multiple hospitals and clinics on the three floors of the building and operate them for five years without early cancellation."

However, at the time, they each had billions of won in debt and were unable to operate the hospital normally. In fact, it was confirmed that most of the 1.8 billion won paid by the developer was used to repay personal debt.

The court pointed out, "He defrauded the victim of a large amount of money and then evaded responsibility with an unconvincing excuse, so the guilt is heavy and the nature of the crime is bad," and "The victim is pleading for severe punishment because the damage has not been recovered."