Korean accused of conning countryman

It’s a case we hear of from time to time: a business transaction in which one of the parties turns out to be a con artist. This latest incident reportedly occurred at the Commercial Free Zone in Corozal. Korean businessman fifty year old Hueng Tack Kim told police that on Monday morning another Korean man, Hi Hyung Cheong, approached him at his store saying he represented a textile company in Vietnam. Kim said Cheong offered to sell him high quality socks and last month he ordered five hundred and ninety-eight boxes worth, which would cost over eighty-two thousand U.S. dollars. Kim then made a down payment of five hundred and seventy-five thousand pesos to Cheong. Later, of course, Kim would discover that the company in Vietnam never existed. Police have since detained the forty-seven year old Cheong, a resident of Chetumal, pending charges of Obtaining Property by Deception. Police say Cheong has conducted business within the Free Zone before and that’s exactly where they nabbed him. This was the first time such a report has been made against Cheong.