A federal jury in Alexandria convicted 52-year-old Jihoon Park of Chantilly, Virginia, on Wednesday for orchestrating a multi-million-dollar fraud scheme targeting local investors and hiding his assets in bankruptcy court.
Court records and trial evidence showed that Park used personal community ties and his background with a major national financial institution to convince local residents to invest their savings with him. He promised victims safe, high-yield investment returns, but instead pocketed more than $2.5 million of their funds to purchase a personal residence and cryptocurrency.
“Jihoon Park claimed he would invest his community members’ life savings, retirement, and money and promised a high-yield return. Instead, he stole the millions of dollars entrusted to him to enrich himself,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Unsuspecting families and individuals suffered devastating financial crises because of Park’s crimes. The Criminal Division’s White Collar Section is using every available resource to stop criminals from destroying people’s livelihoods and retirements.”
When an investor filed a lawsuit against him, Park moved assets into his wife’s name and concealed millions of dollars held in cryptocurrency. He then filed for bankruptcy, claiming under oath that he owned no digital currency and possessed just $0.34 in total financial assets in an effort to block victims from recovering their losses…