Top K-Drama Actress Loses Over KRW 2.5 Billion To Financial Fraud

According to Korean news outlets, actress Seo Hyun Jin has fallen victim to a massive financial fraud.

On June 2, KST, NewsPirit reported that Seo Hyun Jin had filed for a court auction in April this year after her landlord failed to return the jeonse deposit for a villa she had been renting in Gangnam, Seoul.

Supreme Court records showed that Seo signed a lease agreement for the property in April 2020 and submitted a deposit of ₩2.50 billion KRW (about $1.81 million USD). She later renewed the lease in 2022, with an increased deposit of ₩2.65 billion KRW (about $1.92 million USD). However, when the lease expired in 2024, the landlord didn’t return the deposit, despite her leaseholder rights being registered.

The actress was left with no choice but to vacate the property and initiate the auction proceedings to recover her money. The villa itself has since been classified as a”kkangtong house,” a slang term used to refer to properties with market values diminished beyond the sum of their loans and deposits.

Though the villa was initially appraised at ₩3 KRW (about $0.00 USD), it failed to attract any buyers in the first round of auction. The current minimum bid has been dropped to ₩2.30 billion KRW (about $1.66 million USD), which is far less than what Seo paid in deposit. Real estate industry experts are skeptical about this price rising anytime soon, given the constant downturn in Korea’s real estate market. It is being assumed that Seo is doomed to incur significant financial loss over this property.

Meanwhile, Seo Hyun Jin is gearing up to return to the small screen with the upcoming K-Drama, Love Me. The drama is a Korean remake of the Swedish drama of the same name.