“YES, I took it and I also informed the owner,” said theft defendant Jin Keun Kim when asked by the prosecutor whether he agrees that he took $19,825 in rental collection payments from RJ Apartments from July 2019 to November 2019.
In his testimony through an interpreter during his ongoing jury trial in Superior Court, Kim also told the court that he does not have authorization to use the money collected from tenant rental payments.
Kim, 60, said he used the rental payments collected to pay for his off-island trip to California in mid-September 2019 to mid-October 2019 to see his girlfriend.
He added that the other reason he went to California was to look for an investor to fund his failing business, but he did not get any “seed money.”
As for the rental payments, Kim said, “she told me to give it to her,” referring to Hyun Corporation vice president Yunni Cai, or to deposit the money into the company’s bank account.
He said there was no other specific instruction.
“You either hand it to her or you deposit it at the bank,” said the prosecutor, Assistant Attorney General Heather Barcinas, during cross-examination.
“Yes, that is right,” Kim replied.
The defendant also admitted that he had already taken the rental money before executing a promissory note.
“I used [some of] the money to pay for my living arrangements, since when I was working as manager of RJ Apartments, I was not getting paid, only getting rent free,” he said.
“I used the money to pay [for] food, pay for my car…, insurance, gas, and sometimes for eating outside in a restaurant,” said Kim whose trial started on Sept. 13, 2021.
According to his attorney, Anthony Aguon, the defense does not contest the fact that his client collected rent from the tenants. “That was his job,” he said. “But we do contest that he took the money unlawfully, and with the intent to permanently deprive the corporation [of its money].”
For her part, Judge Teresa Kim-Tenorio, who is presiding over the trial, said she is not in any way related to the defendant.
The prosecution, which rested its case on Tuesday, called three witnesses: Cai, police detective Sgt. Kevin Maratita and police detective Myron Laniyo.
