A shocking fraud case has emerged involving Choi, a 71-year-old man who impersonated a world-renowned sculptor to deceive local governments and pocket hundreds of millions of won for fake artworks. On September 1, 2025, the Daegu District Court ruled that Choi must pay 297 million won in damages to Cheongdo County, Gyeongsangbuk Province.

In May 2023, Choi signed a contract with Cheongdo County to supply 20 sculptures for the Sinhwarang Pungryu Village and Saemaul Undong Memorial Park, receiving the full payment. He boasted an impressive, yet entirely fabricated, resume, claiming to be an honorary professor at Paris Diderot University, a member of the Roman Catholic Academy of Arts, and a consultant for the Vatican Center for Figurative Art. The sculptures, which he claimed to have personally crafted from Italian Carrara marble, were in fact mass-produced in a factory in Hebei, China.

Cheongdo County admitted to not thoroughly verifying Choi's credentials, citing his prior work supplying hundreds of angel statues to Sinan County and his frequent media appearances as reasons for their trust. It was later revealed that Choi had multiple prior convictions for fraud and was incarcerated during the period he claimed to be a professor in Paris.

Sinan County, which had commissioned over 300 angel statues from Choi for approximately 1.9 billion won, was also affected. Although Sinan County filed a fraud complaint against Choi, a court acquitted him, ruling that the county considered the symbolic value of the works more important than Choi's reputation. Prosecutors have since appealed the decision.

[ⓒ Global Economic Times. 무단전재-재배포 금지]