SEATTLE (AP) — A Bellevue, Washington investment adviser was sentenced on Aug. 17 to nine years in prison and ordered to pay $3.6 million in restitution.
U.S. Attorney Annette Hayes says Chris Young Yoo pleaded guilty in March, admitting he raised millions by promising to invest his clients’ money in funds he managed.
But Hayes says Yoo didn’t invest their funds. Instead he used their money to pay his living and business expenses.
Court records show that between 2006 and 2015, Yoo operated Summit Asset Strategies in Bellevue. The company operated two funds that invested mostly in South Korea.
Yoo soon began funneling investors’ money into a separate bank account and used it for himself.
Judge Thomas Zilly said Yoo destroyed lives financially, emotionally and physically. ■