# 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.
- Title: He swore he had 34 cents. He had millions. · Yahoo Finance
- Summary: 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…
- Keywords: fraud, bankruptcy, crypto, affinity fraud, courts, business, finance, swore, cents, millions, Yahoo Finance
- Source: Yahoo Finance — https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/crypto/articles/man-declares-bankruptcy-34-cents-234136167.html
- Published: 2026-09-10T23:41:36+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: fraud, bankruptcy, crypto, affinity fraud, courts, business, 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.
## Key takeaway

Bankruptcy court runs on sworn disclosure, and hiding crypto from it is its own federal crime on top of the original fraud.