(KRON) — A San Jose man was sentenced to prison on Thursday after he scammed victims who believed that they were investing in electric vehicle tech companies, prosecutors said.
Joon Woo Kim, 58, was sentenced by a federal judge to serve 33 months in prison.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Kim orchestrated two fraud schemes. In one, he mislead victims to contribute millions of dollars into an investment fund, M5 Doctors Fund, that Kim founded in San Francisco. Investors believed that their money would be invested in electric vehicle companies, including Tesla.
In reality, Kim funneled the money into his own private company, CKR Enterprise, prosecutors said.
In the second scheme, he obtained multi-million dollar business loans by lying to a bank. Earlier this year, Kim pleaded guilty to wire fraud and making false statements to a bank.
The first fraud scheme occurred from June 2015 through March 2022 and involved creating and running an investment fund that Kim named M5 Doctors Fund, investigators said. Kim admitted in his plea agreement that he ran the M5 Doctors Fund with the intent to deceive investors.