From Yahoo Finance · · 1m 30s
He swore he had 34 cents. He had millions.
A Virginia jury convicted Jihoon Park of raiding his neighbors' retirement savings, then lying to a bankruptcy judge to keep it.
In brief
A Virginia jury convicted Jihoon Park of raiding his neighbors' retirement savings, then lying to a bankruptcy judge to keep it. Bankruptcy court runs on sworn disclosure, and hiding crypto from it is its own federal crime on top of the original fraud. Originally reported by Yahoo Finance.
Convicted in Alexandria
On September 8, a federal jury in Alexandria, Virginia found Jihoon Park guilty of running an investment fraud scheme and then defrauding a bankruptcy court.
He sold trust, not returns
Park leaned on personal relationships and his old job at a big financial institution to persuade people in his community to hand over life savings and retirement money.
$2.5 million, redirected
Instead of investing it, he moved more than $2.5 million from those community members to himself. He spent it on a house and on cryptocurrency.
Assets vanished before filing
When one victim sued, Park shifted assets to his wife and hid millions in crypto, then filed for bankruptcy with the money already out of reach.
The 34 cent claim
He told the bankruptcy court he held 34 cents in financial assets and no crypto at all. Prosecutors called it a lie built to leave his victims with nothing.
“The preposterous lie was meant to avoid paying his victim creditors any money back from his fraud”
Up to 25 years
The jury returned three wire fraud counts and two bankruptcy fraud counts, carrying maximums of 20 and five years. The FBI is still investigating; sentencing is set for December 10.
The essence
Bankruptcy court runs on sworn disclosure, and hiding crypto from it is its own federal crime on top of the original fraud.
