On July 10, according to the Supreme Court announcement, Douglas Jae Woo Kim was sentenced to 48 months of federal imprisonment today for defrauding investors of over $7 million in cryptocurrency and other funds. Senior U.S. District Court Judge Charles R. Breyer announced this sentence.
During the three-week trial in February 2025, the 32-year-old New York resident Kim was found guilty by a federal jury of 14 counts of wire fraud, international money laundering, and money laundering, with one international money laundering charge not sustained. At today's sentencing hearing, Judge Breyer dismissed one count of monetary instrument money laundering based on jurisdictional grounds. Court documents and trial evidence showed that between October 2017 and June 2020, Kim, who had moved to San Francisco, defrauded multiple friends and family investors by posing as a legitimate cryptocurrency trader. He falsely claimed to need short-term liquidity funds for cryptocurrency trading or other legal business purposes, assured victims that loans were "zero or extremely low risk," promised high returns, and claimed to have sufficient funds for personal guarantees.
