Land speculator uses classified road plans, gets nabbed

City construction worker uncovered plan to build road, snatched up land

A 51-year-old man, identified as Jeong, was serving as an official at the Gwacheon City office construction department in April 2001 when he came across classified city plans to build a road.

Jeong knew that he would gain a windfall if he purchased land near the planned road. He needed about 450 million won (US$475,000) to buy the land, but had no equity to do so. He obtained mortgage loans worth 190 million won and borrowed 280 billion won from his relatives. In February 2002, Jeong’s wife began to purchase a total of 1,663 square meters of land, doing so in three installments.

Sure enough, the price of the land began to surge about 15 days after the last purchase. In September 2003, Jeong sold the land for 1.65 billion won, earning 1.2 billion won (US$1.4 million) in profit.

But Jeong’s rapid and profitable land sales raised suspicion.

A district court in Suwon indicted Jeong on charges of violating an anti-corruption law. Jeong was sentenced to serve two years in prison and pay 1.2 billion won in fines. On appeal, Jeong had his sentence reduced to 18 months and 738 million won.

Jeong appealed again, saying that rumors of the road development plan were in general circulation at the time his wife purchased the land.

However, the Supreme Court rejected his appeal on November 16, saying the road development plan was regarded as classified information.