After the Divorce, I Found a Thousand Bitcoins - Chapter 20

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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I Got Divorced and Found a Thousand Bitcoins Episode 020

The best thing about having money was not having to consider prices when buying or eating anything.

“Isn’t this pretty?”

I showed items to Mother.

“Oh my, it’s really lovely.”

If the reaction was positive.

“Please pack this one too.”

I could just buy it.

It could be called overspending.

But so what if it was overspending?

The reason for earning money wasn’t to save it, but to enjoy an abundant life.

That abundance had to be shared with the family right beside me.

“Son, how about this one?”

“It’s perfect for you, Mother! Europe can be hot depending on the region, so let’s get that too. Please pack this as well.”

“Yes, sir.”

The department store shopping went smoothly.

A dedicated staff member took care of all the items for us.

This service was possible thanks to the card issued by Hanbit Bank.

The VIP exclusive card known to the world as the so-called black card.

There was no limit and various additional services were available.

“Son, didn’t we spend too much today?”

“It’s fine. As I told you before, I’m earning well now, so you don’t need to worry.”

Mother didn’t worry as much about this kind of shopping as she used to.

Since I had given her a house as a gift, arranged VIP medical care at the hospital, and even had someone accompany us to department stores like this, she seemed to have some expectations.

The fact that her son had changed from the past.

“I’m living in luxury thanks to my son.”

When I heard words like this, being able to earn money brought me great joy.

“Let’s come shopping often from now on.”

“Mom would love that.”

Mother smiled brightly like a young girl.

* * *

The next day.

Kang Hyeon received a phone call.

-This is the landlord. I’m calling after seeing your text.

“Ah, I’m the one regarding Daeseong Villa Room 201…”

-Oh, that place? What’s your relationship with the lady living there as a tenant?

I didn’t like his tone.

But since I hadn’t requested the call to pick a fight, I suppressed my anger.

“I’m her son.”

-Ah~ You’re her son. So, what’s this about?

“I’m calling because you said the deposit return would be delayed.”

-Well, as I told the lady too. It’s just going to be a little delayed.

“Didn’t we clearly agree that we’d receive it with 10 percent of the deposit deducted as a penalty fee?”

-That was then, this is now. Did we write up any agreement?

“We agreed over the phone, didn’t we?”

-Did we? I can’t remember. Anyway, it’s difficult to return the money right now. Figure it out yourself.

The call ended.

“What the…”

It was absurd.

He couldn’t remember what we had agreed on.

“If necessary, I can wait until the contract period ends, but…”

Only 4 months remained on the contract.

I could declare my intention not to renew after one month and receive the deposit back after 3 months passed.

The villa would be empty, but that wasn’t a big problem.

“Something feels fishy about him acting this way. Considering the remaining period, it would be much more profitable for him to terminate the contract and receive the 10 percent penalty fee, yet he’s acting like this.”

Something was bothering me.

The problem was that I didn’t have much knowledge about real estate.

“I should ask an expert for help with this.”

Fortunately, I knew a real estate expert.

[Kim Mi-ju, Real Estate CEO]

* * *

Cheongdam Real Estate, where Kim Mi-ju was the CEO.

Kang Hyeon was sitting there.

In front of him, Kim Mi-ju, the owner of the real estate agency, was making phone calls.

‘Did I make an unnecessary request?’

She was very enthusiastic.

She was contacting all her acquaintances to gather information.

After searching for information like this, she came to one conclusion.

“This looks like a jeonse fraud property.”

“Jeonse fraud?”

“Yes. The owner of the property where your mother is staying is listed as a corporation, not an individual. I looked into the real estate owned by that corporation, and it’s 140 properties.”

“140 properties? Is that possible?”

“It’s entirely possible. Moreover, all the real estate they own are villas near your mother’s place. And it doesn’t look like they were acquired through normal methods, but through gap investment.”

“Gap investment means…”

“It’s a method where you receive 90 million won as jeonse deposit for a 100 million won house and purchase it by only putting in 10 million won of your own capital. If you buy this way, you only need 100 million won even if you buy 10 houses worth 100 million each.”

“Since the house value would actually be 1 billion and would be counted as assets, you could use that to get loans and buy more houses.”

“Exactly.”

Once I understood the basic mechanism, I could see the problems with it.

“Houses acquired this way would have a high possibility of default if interest rates rise even slightly, wouldn’t they?”

“That becomes a problem in many cases. Especially with corporate properties, there’s almost no way to get your money back if they go bankrupt.”

Now I understood why she called it jeonse fraud.

The corporation owned multiple villas, all concentrated in one area.

Having seen this pattern often, Kim Mi-ju concluded this was jeonse fraud.

“We’d need to check the mortgages on the properties they own, but your mother’s house is likely a jeonse fraud property.”

“Mother would have checked those things…”

“Even if ordinary people check, there are many ways to circumvent that. They could simply execute a loan after your mother checked the mortgage. There are countless ways to deceive.”

There were often people who said that those who got scammed weren’t careful enough.

But no one got scammed for being careless.

Fraud was something that happened even when you were careful and careful again.

“Then why did they say they would return the jeonse deposit?”

“When operating as a corporation, they likely have employees. An employee who knew nothing probably agreed when offered 10 percent, then later realized they couldn’t return it. In such cases, jeonse fraud is often imminent.”

“Hmm…”

The other party was trying to commit fraud.

And with Mother’s life savings, no less.

‘I can’t just let this slide.’

* * *

Kang Hyeon contacted Manager Jeong Min-jun from the accounting firm.

-Yes! Sir!

“It’s been a while, Manager. Have you been well? I was wondering if your firm has a team that specializes in real estate.”

-Of course! As I mentioned before, our company has a team that specializes in real estate! Do you need assistance?

“Yes, I need advice from real estate experts for personal reasons. I’ll provide generous compensation, so could you possibly send an expert?”

-Of course! I’ll prepare right away and head out!

Not long after hanging up the phone, Manager Jeong arrived.

“You came personally, Manager?”

“Haha! I’m not working in the field right now, but until two years ago, I was active as a real estate specialist.”

“I see. Shall we head out then?”

“I’ll drive you in my car! Where should we go?”

“Yeongjong.”

Yeongjong International City.

It was located in Incheon, adjacent to Songdo.

As the car departed, Manager Jeong asked.

“Are you looking at real estate in Yeongjong for investment purposes?”

“No. My mother was living in a villa over there. We were planning to move her to an apartment this time. But the landlord seems strange.”

“Strange how…?”

“At first, they agreed to return the deposit after taking a 10 percent penalty fee. But suddenly they changed their story. When I looked into it a bit, I found out the landlord isn’t an individual but a corporation. And they own quite a few villas too.”

“Hmm… there’s a high possibility it’s a jeonse scam.”

As expected of an expert, Manager Jeong Min-jun immediately connected it to jeonse fraud.

“The person who advised me also mentioned something similar. I thought about waiting and pursuing legal procedures if the money isn’t returned, but my mother would feel a great sense of loss during that period.”

“For someone of your mother’s generation, almost all their assets would be tied up in their home. In that case, it would be the wealth they’ve built over a lifetime, so the sense of loss would be enormous.”

“You understand well.”

“My cousin was also a victim of jeonse fraud. So I know a bit about it.”

Jeonse fraud was no longer someone else’s story.

It was a scam method that occurred openly and victimized countless people.

“I’ll tell you more once we get to the site, but if it really is jeonse fraud, I’ll do everything I can to help you.”

“Thank you, that’s really reassuring.”

It felt like I had gained the best ally.

* * *

Manager Jeong Min-jun made several calls while driving.

Having worked in real estate, he seemed to have many connections in that field.

By the time we arrived in Yeongjong, we could grasp the general situation.

“Hmm… it’s not good. I think we have to consider it’s almost certainly jeonse fraud.”

The bad news was that it was highly likely to be jeonse fraud.

All 140 villas owned by the corporation fell into this category, and several villas were already failing to return deposits.

“It seems lawsuits are already in progress for those.”

“The villa where your mother lived hasn’t reached the lawsuit stage yet, so she didn’t know about it.”

“I’ll tell you more details once I get information from my contacts.”

While listening to the explanation, the car arrived in Yeongjong.

After arriving at the location of Mother’s villa, Manager Jeong Min-jun went around nearby real estate offices collecting information.

Being eloquent and well-versed in real estate, he grilled the licensed brokers and extracted the information he wanted.

Soon, he was able to gather various pieces of information.

“Huh? That villa complex? That’s the place where they said an amusement park was coming in, but it fell through.”

“Ah~ that place? They’re all outsiders. Since they rent out jeonse cheaply, people working in Songdo or those who lived in Gajwa or Gyeyang-dong areas came over.”

“That entire villa complex is probably owned by one company.”

Then some interesting information came in.

“All owned by one company?”

“Yes. Let me see… look at this map.”

The licensed broker representative took out a map.

The map showed the entire Yeongjong International City, and the representative pointed to one specific area.

“They tried to build an amusement park in this entire area, but that fell through. So land prices dropped, and the company that bought it then suddenly built a bunch of villas.”

“That’s the 140 units, isn’t it?”

“Hey~ do you think they only built 140 units on this land? Combined, it’s probably over 2,000 units.”

Manager Jeong’s eyes widened.

“You… you mean one company owns all those villas? When I checked the registry, Yeongjong Smart Development only owned 140 villas.”

“Those are subsidiary companies. If you investigate a bit, you’ll find that above Yeongjong Smart Development is JS Global.”

“JS Global…?”

“JS Global Construction Corporation. It’s not quite a major corporation, but it’s still a fairly large company.”

Manager Jeong had heard that name before.

He’d heard it was a company that had been in the construction business for quite some time in this industry, but had become very difficult after experiencing COVID and inflation consecutively.

‘So they planned jeonse fraud and came this far?’

The possibility was sufficient.

The problem was that the scale had become too large now.

‘Over 2,000 units… I’ve never seen this scale before. Even Choi CEO would be surprised.’

Manager Jeong glanced over at Kang Hyeon.

He too seemed surprised by this situation, staring intently at the map with his mouth tightly shut.

But contrary to his thoughts, Kang Hyeon was surprised for a different reason.

‘This area…’

The reason Kang Hyeon was staring intently at the map was because the entire area around where Mother’s house was located was glowing red.

‘Is the entire area going to rise?’

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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