Top court upholds 5-year sentence for North Korean beer fraud

The Supreme Court finalized its five-year sentence for a woman who swindled over 3 billion won ($2.2 million) from investors with a North Korean beer brand and mask scheme, according to legal circles on Wednesday. 

The top court upheld the lower court's ruling, which sentenced the defendant, Yang Kyeong-sook, to five years in prison for fraud under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes.

Yang was tried on charges of taking roughly 3.3 billion won from seven victims between December 2020 and March 2022 as investment funds, promising them returns if they invested in a business involving selling North Korea's Taedonggang Beer and supplying masks to the North.

Yang's promoted the idea that profits from importing and selling the North Korean beer in South Korea would be used to buy masks to send to North Korean residents.

Yang reportedly told victims the venture had received approval from the Ministry of Unification and promised a guaranteed margin and minimum return per mask, but investigators found the business had no real substance. The investment funds were found to have been used to pay back earlier investors, cover card payments and purchase cryptocurrency.

After the investigation began, Yang fled abroad and was later apprehended in China for overstaying her visa.

The first trial court sentenced Yang to six years in prison last November. The court found her conduct highly blameworthy, noting that despite two prior criminal convictions for fraud, she had again committed a similar type of offense, including flaunting personal connections with political and media figures.

The appellate court in April of this year reduced the sentence to five years after taking into account that Yang had settled with one of the victims. Yang appealed, but the Supreme Court found no error in the lower court's ruling and dismissed the appeal.

BY HYEON YE-SEUL [[email protected]]