Bay City News
A San Jose businessman was given nearly three years in federal prison on Monday after pleading guilty to $9 million in fraud, U.S. Attorney Ismail Ramsey announced.
Joon Woo Kim, 58, was given 33 months for fraud schemes involving investors in electric vehicles and defrauding a bank.
Kim was indicted in July 2023 after he induced investors to contribute to a fund he created in San Francisco called the M5 Doctors Fund by making false statements and omissions about the kinds of investments he would make while managing the fund’s assets, prosecutors said.
For example, Kim advertised that he would invest assets from the M5 Doctors Fund in securities for Tesla, Inc. and other electric vehicle companies. Instead, he transferred nearly all the funds into a wholesale food company owned by both he and his wife.
From June 2015 through at least March 2022, Kim transferred $4.8 million of these investments into his company. Additionally, prosecutors said Kim misled fund investors that the fund was solvent and still engaging in investment activities.