Investment Fraud: SUNG HONG Sentenced For Defrauding More Than 55 Clients On Affinity Investment Fraud

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<h2>Couple Sentenced to Lengthy Prison Terms for &dollar;12&period;7 Million Affinity Investment Fraud<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p><strong>Defendants Preyed on Faith Communities to Fund Lavish Lifestyle<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>SUNG HONG&comma; 47&comma; and HYUN JOO HONG&comma; 42&comma; of Clyde Hill&comma; Washington were sentenced today in U&period;S&period; District Court in Seattle to lengthy prison terms for defrauding more than 55 clients out of &dollar;12&period;7 million&comma; announced U&period;S&period; Attorney Annette L&period; Hayes&period; SUNG HONG&comma; aka LAURENCE HONG or LAWRENCE HONG&comma; was sentenced to 15 years in prison&period; His wife&comma; HYUN JOO HONG&comma; aka GRACE HONG&comma; was sentenced to six years in prison&period; From 2010 until their arrest in June 2017&comma; the couple held themselves out as experienced investment advisors with a track record of performance in order to solicit investor funds for their hedge fund&comma; Pishon Holdings&comma; and for management through separately managed accounts&period; In fact&comma; SUNG HONG had just completed a 33 month sentence for committing investment fraud when he launched this new scheme in 2010&period; At the sentencing hearing U&period;S&period; District Judge Thomas S&period; Zilly said&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;This scheme was a serious&comma; complex fraud over seven years&period; You targeted religious victims&period; You used God as a way to gain trust…&period; You have emotionally and spiritually damaged these victims and most of them will never recover&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Using faith and fraud&comma; this couple stole millions from people whose dreams of a better life have now been shattered&comma;” said U&period;S&period; Attorney Annette L&period; Hayes&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Both repeatedly lied to their investors&comma; all while spending their hard earned money on high-end shopping sprees&comma; luxurious vacations&comma; a yacht and an expensive rental home&period; Their victims now live paycheck to paycheck with college and retirement funds depleted and a very different financial future than they expected&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to records filed in the case&comma; the HONGs recruited investors using religious organizations and shared religious beliefs&period; The couple claimed that LAURENCE HONG privately invested billions of dollars for wealthy Korean families and that GRACE HONG held a Series 65 securities license and previously worked for a large international investment firm&period; None of these statements were true&period; Likewise&comma; the defendants did not disclose LAURENCE HONG’s past criminal conviction for investment fraud&period; The couple sent potential investors misleading and false investment prospectuses that contained an inaccurate record of their past investment performance and other plagiarized investment outlooks&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Throughout their fraudulent scheme&comma; the HONGs used stolen investor funds for their own benefit&comma; including payments for a 9&comma;000 square foot rental home in Clyde Hill&semi; a 45-foot yacht&semi; multiple high-end vehicles&comma; such as BMWs&comma; a Maserati&comma; an Aston Martin&comma; and a Lamborghini&semi; and numerous expensive vacations to locations such as the Bahamas and Beverly Hills&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>One church in California invested &dollar;1 million with the HONGs and lost about &dollar;300&comma;000 on a single trade&period; Still&comma; despite the steep losses and a fee arrangement based on investment gains&comma; the HONGs withdrew almost &dollar;150&comma;000&comma; ostensibly as advisor fees&comma; from the church’s account&period; Another couple allowed the HONGs to manage their &dollar;180&comma;000 in retirement funds only to lose &dollar;100&comma;000 within less than a year&period; After meeting with the HONGs&comma; that couple then invested their remaining retirement funds in the HONGs’ hedge fund&comma; only for those funds to be redirected into GRACE HONG’s personal account&period; The HONGs used those funds to pay credit card bills and other personal expenses&comma; including a &dollar;16&comma;000 payment to a resort in the Bahamas for a HONG family vacation&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Speaking to LAWRENCE HONG&comma; Judge Zilly noted his prior conviction for a similar fraud&colon; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;You clearly did not learn anything from the fact you were convicted and sentenced to prison…&period; You are one of those con men who will never be able to stop conning people&period;” Judge Zilly noted that GRACE HONG played &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;an intricate and important role in the entire scheme&period; She misrepresented her credentials… she took God’s name – she used that to entice investors to put money in their pockets&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Judge Zilly ordered the pair to pay more than &dollar;12&period;7 million in restitution&period; The losses for certain investors represented their entire life or retirement savings&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The case was investigated by the FBI&period; The United States Attorney’s Office thanks the Commodity Futures Trading Commission &lpar;CFTC&rpar; for its assistance in the investigation&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Justin Arnold and Steven Masada&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;justice&period;gov&sol;usao-wdwa&sol;pr&sol;couple-sentenced-lengthy-prison-terms-127-million-affinity-investment-fraud">Original PressReleases&&num;8230&semi;<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<div class&equals;"field&lowbar;&lowbar;label">Topic&lpar;s&rpar;&colon;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<div class&equals;"field&lowbar;&lowbar;items">&NewLine;<div class&equals;"field&lowbar;&lowbar;item even"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;fraudswatch&period;com&sol;tag&sol;Consumer-Protection&sol;">Consumer Protection<&sol;a><&sol;div>&NewLine;<div class&equals;"field&lowbar;&lowbar;item odd"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;fraudswatch&period;com&sol;tag&sol;financial-fraud&sol;">Financial Fraud<&sol;a><&sol;div>&NewLine;<div class&equals;"field&lowbar;&lowbar;item even"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;fraudswatch&period;com&sol;tag&sol;Investment-Fraud&sol;">Securities&comma; Commodities&comma; &amp&semi; Investment Fraud<&sol;a><&sol;div>&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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