A Montgomery Township woman is facing multiple felony charges after she allegedly defrauded a South Korean national out of more than $100,000.
Sung Kim, 60, has been charged with two felony counts of theft by deception and a third felony count of deceptive business practices in connection with the investigation. Kim will be arraigned at her preliminary hearing, which is scheduled for June 28 at 10:30 a.m. in front of Magisterial District Judge Andrea Duffy.
Court documents show Kim — who goes under the alias “Monica Kim” — has already retained private counsel for the hearing in Nicholas Reifsnyder, Esq.
Investigators allege that in spring 2019, Kim agreed to sell a Nissan Murano for $10,000 to a South Korean woman who was traveling to the United States on an investor visa. The woman also provided $120,000 to purchase Kim’s nail salon in Warrington Township, $150,000 for the investor visa, and $12,000 for her children to attend a private school in Montgomery Township, according to charging documents.
Upon arriving to the United States, the victim stayed with Kim for approximately one month, during which the victim was never provided the vehicle or the business, police said. The victim realized she had been defrauded when she went to the nail salon to work and noticed the equipment was in poor condition and the salon had very little in terms of a customer base, police said.
The victim then left the Kim’s and went to live with people from her church.
Investigators determined that the cost of the investor visa was only $50,000, and the cost of private school was only $6,000, according to the complaint. More than $126,000 had been wired from the victim to an account belonging to Kim, and a review of bank transactions showed more than $23,000 had been withdrawn from the account between April 2019 and June 2019 at various casinos, not including other cash withdraws and checks written against the account, according to the complaint.
The nail salon — identified in documents as CoCo Nails — was later sold in April 2021 for $15,000, meaning the victim suffered a loss of $105,000 on the sale alone.
Kim faces up to 10 years in prison on the theft by deception charge, which is a second-degree felony.
All suspects and defendants are innocent until proven guilty. This story was compiled using court records and the affidavit of probable cause.
See also:
Perkasie Man Arrested After Selling Stolen Generator on Facebook Marketplace, Police Say
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Target Manager Arrested After Stealing More Than $44,000 in Store Cash Deposits, Police Say
