Lim Chang-yong (48), a former professional baseball player who was handed over to trial on charges of borrowing gambling funds and not paying back, had a truth battle with the complainant in court.
According to News 1 and Newsis, Chief Judge Kim Sung-joon of the Gwangju District Court’s Criminal Chamber 11 held a hearing on Lim Chang-yong, who was accused of fraud on the 10th.안전놀이터
Lim Chang-yong was put on trial in 2019 on charges of not paying back after borrowing 80 million won from an acquaintance in the Philippines. Prosecutors reportedly claimed that Lim Chang-yong intended to use the money he borrowed from his acquaintance to fund the “Baccarat” gambling, and that fraud charges were established because he was not willing or able to pay it back in the first place.
A, who claimed to have been victimized by fraud, attended the trial as a witness. A said, “I lent 150 million won to Lim (in the Philippines). 70 million won was deposited later,” and added, “I lent money to Lim Chang-yong and another famous baseball player, but now that I think about it, I don’t know if it was another former baseball player, Lim Chang-yong, who paid back. At that time, I thought that Lim Chang-yong paid back, so I used an IOU (80 million won) in April of the following year.”
“I lent the money in cash, not chips,” he said. “I reported the money to customs to run a business in the Philippines, but I lent it to them because I thought I was capable of paying back the money because I was a famous baseball player. I couldn’t reach him, so I received a loan certificate for the unpaid amount through my lawyer,” he claimed.
On the other hand, Lim Chang-yong claimed that he borrowed money from A as a gambling currency (chip) instead of cash and used it at the casino, and returned to Korea to pay off all the borrowed money.
Lim Chang-yong said, “I borrowed a chip worth 70 to 80 million won from a local hotel from A to use it for travel and gambling expenses. In late December 2019, I deposited a total of 70 million won to A on two separate occasions from my wife’s account. I only borrowed it from A for a while because I couldn’t bring (large amount) cash there. I thought I paid it all back.”
Regarding the 80 million won worth of IOUs, he said, “A said, ‘I will inform the media’ and I was afraid of it being widely known because I had a criminal record of gambling. At that time, I couldn’t respond properly and wrote an IOU,” claiming that he wrote it under psychological pressure.
The prosecution requested an additional date to review the change of the indictment, which the court accepted. The next trial against Lim Chang-yong will continue on the morning of October 24.
Meanwhile, Lim Chang-yong has caused several controversies related to gambling in the past. In 2014, while he was active, he was fined 10 million won in 2016 for gambling in Macau in the 40 million won range. In July 2022, he was also sentenced to six months in prison, two years of probation, and a fine of 3 million won after being found guilty of habitual gambling in Baccarat. In 2021, he borrowed 25 million won from an acquaintance and did not pay back 15 million won, so he received a summary order of 1 million won for fraud.
Lim Chang-yong joined the Haitai (current KIA) Tigers in 1995 and retired from KIA in 2018 after playing for the Samsung Lions, the Japanese Professional Baseball (NPB) Yakult Swallows, and the Major League (MLB) Chicago Cubs. Lim Chang-yong, who has played for as many as 24 years until the age of 42, left an outstanding performance of 130 wins, 86 losses, 258 saves and an ERA of 3.45 in 760 KBO league games.
Starting with the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games (AG), Lim Chang-yong, who played at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Busan AG in 2022, and the World Baseball Classic (WBC) in 2009 and 2017, was also selected as the “Legend 40” celebrating the 40th anniversary of the KBO League in 2022 after his retirement. However, his reputation was marred by allegations of gambling and fraud, which did not match the term “legend.”