$60M Pleasanton Ponzi Scheme: Man Gets 10 Years In Prison

PLEASANTON, CA — A man was sentenced to 10 years in prison after admitting to a $60 million Ponzi scheme involving 400 victims and a pair of Pleasanton investment companies, the U.S. Attorney's Office Northern District of California announced Thursday. Korean national Jin K. Chung, 56, pleaded guilty in September to depositing into his personal bank account $520,000 he received from a foreign exchange trading scam, prosecutors say.

Chung, formerly of Los Gatos, and his business partner Peter Son, 47, formerly of the gated Blackhawk community in Danville, falsely advertised that their companies were very successful in foreign exchange trading and investors would receive annual returns between 24 and 36 percent, prosecutors say. Chung and Son deposited client funds into their own accounts and directed employees of their companies, SNC Asset Management, Inc. and SNC Investments, Inc., to send false monthly statements to clients.

Chung regularly cashed checks or arranged wire transfers in amounts more than $10,000, prosecutors say. Most of his victims were Korean-Americans, or Koreans living in California or South Korea, Bay City News reported in September.

The companies were founded in 2003. The men depleted client accounts by October 2008 and closed without notice to workers or clients, prosecutors say.

The case dates back to 2009. Chung was then in South Korea and extradited to the U.S. in 2019. He was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey S. White of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Son was sentenced in 2010 to a 15-year prison term and ordered to pay $60 million in restitution to victims.

Read more about the case in this Department of Justice press release.