If you buy “real estate” with a business loan, is it fraud?…Are coins okay?

[Choice Times=Jeong-Seok Han, Political Commentator]

President Lee Jae-myung said on the 17th, “If you deceive by claiming it is business funds to obtain a loan and then use it to purchase real estate, it will be criminally punished as fraud.”

On that day, President Lee posted on X (formerly Twitter) a link to a media report stating that cases of diverting business loans to other purposes such as home purchases amounted to 127 cases worth 58.75 billion won in the second half of last year, and warned, “The Financial Supervisory Service and the National Tax Service can conduct a joint full investigation, file criminal complaints for fraud, and even recover the loans.” (Editor’s note)

Is it reasonable for a president to govern using terms that are more like those used in arbitrary “magistrate-style judgments”? Does this mean that taking out a business loan and investing in stocks or cryptocurrencies would not be considered fraud? Is that how a president should govern?

Within the business purposes for which a business owner takes out a loan, purchasing real estate can naturally be included. It could be a commercial property, an officetel, a factory-type apartment purchased for operation, or land for a factory or the construction of a company headquarters.

What exactly does Lee mean by “for real estate purchase”? Does he mean non-business residential housing? If so, he should say “non-business residential housing.” He should use proper administrative terminology. Why is everything simply labeled “real estate,” as if the president were some incarnation of a war against real estate?

Does this mean even loans taken to purchase commercial real estate for a “retail rental business” will be blocked? What exactly is the concept here? That is what makes it absurd.

If a business operator qualifies for and receives a loan for business purposes, then as long as the principal and interest are repaid as agreed by maturity, that should be the end of the matter. Why should it matter whether that person uses the business loan to buy a house or not?

If a business fails and someone uses the loan to acquire and renovate a rural house to run a rural settlement rental business, is that also fraud? Without even clarifying what kind of real estate in which region cannot be purchased for non-business purposes, is this something to speak about so carelessly?

Are citizens expected to read the president’s intentions and interpret them on their own? Really…

#RealEstatePolicy #LoanFraudDebate #KoreaPolitics