SEOUL — U.S. Army Garrison-Yongsan held a closed-door appeals hearing Thursday for a prominent real estate agent trying to overturn her company’s off-limits designation, but no decisions were made, the company’s president said Friday.
Julie’s Realty was placed off-limits on Feb. 15, but garrison officials cited an ongoing criminal investigation and wouldn’t say why the company was banned from doing business with base personnel.
The company has offices throughout South Korea but is off-limits only at Yongsan.
President Julie Back said Thursday’s hearing could be continued as early as this week, after she provides more documents to Yongsan officials.
She believes the off-limits designation will be overturned.
“I think the outcome will be good. That is my feeling based on yesterday’s meeting,” she said Friday in a telephone interview.
Back has said her company did nothing wrong, and declined to comment further until the appeals process is completed.
Garrison spokesman David McNally said Friday he couldn’t comment until the criminal investigation is finished.
Yongsan servicemembers and Defense Department civilians are allowed to keep housing contracts made through Julie’s Realty before Feb. 15, but they cannot make new ones.
Back was part of a select group of South Korean civic and business leaders who participated last summer in U.S. Forces Korea’s Young Leaders Program, which educates 30- to 50-year-olds on the U.S. military’s role in South Korea.
Her office, near Samgakji subway station and Yongsan’s Gate One, has about a dozen thank-you letters and certificates of appreciation from USFK officials displayed on a wall.
