Cho Hee-pal fraud victims to receive partial payout from 32 billion won deposit next month

Victims of the Cho Hee-pal case — South Korea's largest-ever pyramid scheme fraud — are set to receive an additional payout from seized criminal proceeds as early as next month.

The Daegu District Court's Western Branch held a dividend hearing Wednesday and confirmed part of the distribution schedule for more than 22,000 victims. The court plans to begin disbursing a portion of the 32 billion won ($20.8 million) in deposited funds to victims starting July 10.

However, objections were raised Wednesday against some of the dividend amounts, meaning full payment is expected to take additional time. Amounts subject to dividend objections must go through separate litigation proceedings.

A total of 71 billion won in criminal proceeds from the Cho Hee-pal case has been deposited with the court. Since 2017, the funds have been distributed sequentially to more than 74,000 victims across four separate dividend cases — two worth 32 billion won each, one worth 5 billion won and one worth 2 billion won.

The current distribution is one of the two 32 billion won cases. The other 32 billion won case resumed payments last October after a lengthy round of objection litigation and is now in its final stages. Dividend hearing dates for the remaining 5 billion won and 2 billion won cases have yet to be set.

"Once payments begin, eligible recipients can visit the court with the relevant documents," a court official said, adding that the office is still tallying the amounts subject to dividend objections.