SEATTLE (AP) — A Bellevue investment adviser has pleaded guilty to fraud and making false statements after investigators said he kept some of his clients’ money as his own.
Seattle U.S. Attorney Annette Hayes says 44-year-old Chris Young Yoo promised to invest the money in funds he managed, but instead used it to pay his own living and business expenses. It cost 17 clients $3.7 million. He entered his plea on March 20 in U.S. District Court.
Yoo ran Summit Asset Strategies from 2006 to 2015. Prosecutors said that in 2015, Yoo reached a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission in which he agreed to pay restitution to some clients. But prosecutors say he continued to solicit investments that he used for his own purposes.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys have agreed to recommend that Yoo face a little more than 6 1/2 years in prison when he’s sentenced in June.