A key figure of a lump-sum "jeonse" rental deposit scandal has been arrested.

The Seoul Central District Court issued an arrest warrant on Friday for the man in his 30s, surnamed Shin, on fraud charges, citing the risk of flight and potential destruction of critical evidence.

Shin, who heads a real estate consulting firm, is suspected of pocketing eight billion won, or about six-point-five million U.S. dollars, in deposit money after swindling 37 tenants renting housing units in the Seoul metropolitan area between July 2017 and September 2020.

Police also suspect that Shin is the mastermind behind a rental scam involving an owner of 240 housing units in Seoul's Gangseo and Yangcheon Districts, surnamed Jeong, who was found dead on Jeju Island in 2021.

Jeong’s death created massive setbacks in the recovery of deposits for tenants who had not subscribed to the deposit-return guarantee insurance.

Shin is also suspected of pulling the strings in another similar scam involving an owner of 628 housing units, surnamed Kim, who was arrested late last month.

The police have secured testimony that there are a number of such landlords dubbed “villa kings” who have engaged in similar fraud schemes on orders from Shin, who investigators believe has managed some three-thousand units across the country with these landlords working for him.

The police have also rounded up 77 people who participated in Kim’s fraud.