Korean bride jailed in Qld speaks out

A Korean woman jailed for defrauding her elderly Australian husband of almost $3 million says the pair were in love and he promised to support her financially.

Kumok Hwang, 57, was sentenced to five years' jail, suspended in four months, in the Brisbane District Court on Friday after pleading guilty to defrauding her infirm husband of $2.8 million.

The court heard she met the businessman in May 2011 after answering a marriage agency advertisement for an 80-year-old Australian millionaire offering $2.9 million in cash and property for a spouse.

Korean media reported that 2000 women applied.

Hwang said she paid the agency $3000 leading to an introduction to her future husband.

"My understanding was that we (were) going to get married ... we (were) very much in love by that time," she told the court.

"He said not to worry about any of the money. He said he would take care of everything for me."

The pair were married in South Korea, Australia and the US.

In August 2011, the Public Trustee was appointed the man's financial administrator due to mental incapacity.

However, in following months about $2.8 million was transferred ultimately to Korean bank accounts in Hwang and her husband's names.

The money was used to purchase property in Korea and a business in Australia and Hwang refused to sign over the purchases once they were discovered by the Public Trustee.

Noting the "peculiar" case, Judge Sarah Bradley accepted Hwang did not intend to leave her husband desolate but said she acted dishonestly when she was aware he no longer controlled his finances.

"I accept there is an element of greed to the offending but also there is clearly a misguided sense of entitlement," she said.

Hwang has spent the past two years behind bars on remand and is due for release in four months under the terms of her suspended sentence.