Man attempts to abduct brother, isn’t recognized

Discord between two brothers over inheritance issues drove one to forge an arrest warrant and pretend to be a prosecution investigator in an attempt to abduct his brother and threaten him to give up more of their father’s inheritance, according to an exclusive report by the JoongAng Ilbo.

“There’s a man wearing a mask in front of my car who’s trying to arrest me,” the older brother, a 62-year-old surnamed Ahn, reported to the police on the morning of Nov. 23.

According to Ahn, the man approached him while Ahn was sitting in his car in front of his house.

“I have brought an arrest warrant to arrest you,” the man allegedly said, “so get out of the car.”

According to Ahn, the man then said he was an investigator from the local prosecutors’ office and showed him an arrest warrant. Ahn said he lowered the window of his car to receive and examine the warrant, but kept the window up while examining it.

When Ahn asked for an ID, the man said he did not have one. Instead, he started tapping on the window with his police baton. Suspicious, Ahn reported him to police. At this point, a car waiting behind Ahn started honking, and the man left.

Police tracked down the man’s vehicle using CCTV camera footage, and found that the man was not the owner of the car. The owner, however, helped police find the suspect, who turned out to be Ahn’s brother, a 55-year-old.

When police arrested him on Nov. 26, Ahn’s brother admitted to the charges against him.

“My father was once CEO of a famous conglomerate,” Ahn’s brother told police. “It was once greater than Posco.”

According to police, the Ahn brothers are sons of the former CEO of a textile conglomerate that was based in South Gyeongsang until the 1980s and that raked in some hundreds of billions of won per year. The company closed down sometime in the 1990s.

Ahn is the first son in the family, and his brother is the fifth.

Their father passed away 20 years ago, and the two sons inherited his fortunes, worth some tens of billions of won, they told police. But a conflict broke out over dividing the inheritance, and the brothers cut ties eight years ago.

The older brother became a successful real estate manager, police said, but the younger brother reportedly used up most of his inheritance on failed attempts to open a business.

The younger brother allegedly tried to meet with his older brother to bring up the inheritance dispute again, but the older Ahn refused to meet him. The younger brother then printed out a fake arrest warrant from the internet and bought a baton.

According to police, the younger Ahn tried to abduct his brother to try to threaten him.

“I lived a VIP’s life,” the younger brother told police. “My children went to elite schools and I used to own a couple of buildings, too. But after the Asian financial crisis, all my businesses crumbled and I lost all my money.”

Police detained him on Nov. 26 under charges of attempted abduction, public document forgery and impersonating a public official.

BY YUN JUNG-MIN [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]