An 18-year-old woman and her 15-year-old brother have been accused of drugging their father with sleeping pills, stealing his smartphone and using it to fraudulently obtain tens of millions of won in online loans, prosecutors said.
The siblings allegedly slipped sleeping pills into their 47-year-old father's coffee in September 2024 and took out about 31 million won ($21,000) in online loans using the father's smartphone. Prosecutors say the siblings also transferred 42 million won from his bank accounts.
The money was used to buy gold, which was later sold for cash, with some of the proceeds spent on personal expenses, including the daughter's skin care treatments, according to prosecutors.
The Ulsan District Prosecutors' Office indicted the 18-year-old daughter, identified only by her surname Nam, and her same-age boyfriend, surnamed Jung, without detention on June 22 on charges of robbery and computer fraud, the Hankyoreh newspaper reported Tuesday. Nam's 15-year-old brother was referred to juvenile court on the same allegations.
The case took a dramatic turn after prosecutors reopened the investigation in November 2025.
Police had initially only referred Jung, the boyfriend, to prosecutors on charges of computer fraud in October 2024, citing only his role in obtaining online loans using his girlfriend's father's smartphone.
At the time, officials did not book the 15-year-old brother because the alleged offense fell under the now-defunct family exemption rule, which shielded close relatives from criminal prosecution for certain property crimes committed between them.
During the police investigation, Jung identified his girlfriend as an accomplice and alleged that she had drugged her father with sleeping pills. Authorities, however, closed the case without further investigation into the claim after she denied any involvement and her younger brother corroborated her account.
After reopening the case, however, prosecutors said Jung told investigators that the three had planned from the outset to drug the father before carrying out the scheme.
When prosecutors confronted the siblings with Jung during a joint interrogation, both admitted their roles in the scheme. They told investigators that the sister had crushed 10 to 20 prescription sleeping pills she had obtained from a psychiatric clinic, along with over-the-counter sleep aids, mixed the powder into a coffee purchased at a convenience store and gave it to their father.
Prosecutors charged the siblings with robbery and computer fraud, concluding that stealing their father's smartphone and using it to fraudulently obtain online bank loans constituted a crime against the financial institution rather than their father, falling outside the scope of the family exemption rule.
The brother was later referred to juvenile court rather than indicted after prosecutors determined that he had acted under the direction of his older sister and Jung and had not personally profited from the crime.
junheee@heraldcorp.com
