Brian Kim (also known as "Bu Yung Kim"; born 1975/1976) is an American former

hedge fund A hedge fund is a Pooling (resource management), pooled investment fund that holds Market liquidity, liquid assets and that makes use of complex trader (finance), trading and risk management techniques to aim to improve investment performance and ...

manager. He founded the now-defunct Liquid Capital Management LLC, which focused on

futures trading In finance, a futures contract (sometimes called futures) is a standardized legal contract to buy or sell something at a predetermined price for delivery at a specified time in the future, between parties not yet known to each other. The item tr ...

. In 2011, he was found guilty of

fraudulent In law, fraud is intentional deception to deprive a victim of a legal right or to gain from a victim unlawfully or unfairly. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover mone ...

solicitation Solicitation is the act of offering, or attempting to purchase, goods and/or services. Legal status may be specific to the time or place where it occurs. The crime of "solicitation to commit a crime" occurs when a person encourages, "solicits, r ...

misappropriation In law, misappropriation is the unauthorized use of another's name, likeness, identity, property, discoveries, inventions, etc. without that person's permission, resulting in harm to that person. Another use of the word refers to intentional a ...

, and misrepresentation to investors and regulatory organizations. An injunction was sought, preventing him from trading in commodities futures and foreign currencies. A $12.5 million default judgement was entered against him, and he was banned from

commodity trading A commodity market is a market that trades in the primary economic sector rather than manufactured products. The primary sector includes agricultural products, energy products, and metals. Soft commodities may be perishable and harvested, w ...

. In 2012, he pleaded guilty to charges including passport fraud,

grand larceny Larceny is a crime involving the unlawful taking or theft of the personal property of another person or business. It was an offence under the common law of England and became an offence in jurisdictions which incorporated the common law of Eng ...

, scheme to defraud, violation of the NY General Business Law ( Martin Act), and falsifying business records to further a

Ponzi scheme A Ponzi scheme (, ) is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays Profit (accounting), profits to earlier investors with Funding, funds from more recent investors. Named after Italians, Italian confidence artist Charles Ponzi, this type of s ...

. He was sentenced to a term of five years, seven months and 15 years, seven months in prison.

Early life and education

Kim was born in the late-to-mid 1970s in New Jersey. He graduated from

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

in 1997, where he had majored in economics and minored in art history.

Career

He founded the now-defunct Liquid Capital Management LLC, which focused on

, in 2002 and had an office on Broadway in New York City. In 2009, Kim twice appeared on

CNBC CNBC is an American List of business news channels, business news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group, a unit of Comcast's NBCUniversal. The network broadcasts live business news and analysis programming during the morning, Day ...

's financial television news show ''

Squawk Box ''Squawk Box'' is an American business news television program that airs from 6 to 9 a.m. Eastern Time Zone, Eastern time on CNBC. The program is co-hosted by Joe Kernen, Rebecca Quick, Becky Quick, and Andrew Ross Sorkin. Since debuting in 19 ...

'', speaking as an expert about derivatives trading.

Controversy

Brian Kim owned and lived in an apartment at Christodora House. He was indicted and arrested in 2009, and accused of stealing $435,000 from the Christodora House condo association in 2008. Kim failed to appear at his trial in January 2011, and was charged with jumping bail. He had fled to Hong Kong after obtaining a new passport by saying his was lost. In fact it had been confiscated by authorities. He was taken into custody in Hong Kong in October 2011, and was returned to the United States. After an investigation by the

Commodity Futures Trading Commission The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US government created in 1974 that regulates the U.S. derivatives markets, which includes futures contract, fut ...

(CFTC) into his hedge fund business, in February 2011, Kim was charged both civilly and criminally with financial fraud,

, and scheme to defraud for running a $6 million

from January 2003 through January 2011, and cheating at least 45 investors from the West Coast while providing them with fake monthly performance statements. According to prosecutors, he misrepresented the quality of the investments to his clients, while stealing some of the money for himself. The CFTC sued Kim and Liquid Capital in February 2011, charging them with fraudulent solicitation, misappropriation, and misrepresentation to investors and regulatory organizations, and seeking an

injunction An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a special court order compelling a party to do or refrain from doing certain acts. It was developed by the English courts of equity but its origins go back to Roman law and the equitable rem ...

preventing them from trading in commodities futures and foreign currencies.CFTC Release: pr6028-11; New York Federal Court Orders Brian Kim and Liquid Capital Management, LLC, to Pay More than $12 Million in Restitution and Monetary Sanctions for Commodity Pool Fraud; Defendants were indicted by a New York County Grand Jury in February 2011.
April 21, 2011 The agency said Kim and his employees told clients that Liquid Capital generated returns of more than 240 percent, when in fact they were losing money, and the only funds coming in were from new deposits by clients. In April 2011, Judge

Denise Cote Denise Louise Cote (born October 13, 1946) is a United States federal judge, senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Early life and education Cote was born in St. Cloud, Minn ...

of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York found the defendants guilty of all charges. She entered a

default judgment Default judgment is a binding judgment in favor of either party based on some failure to take action by the other party. Most often, it is a judgment in favor of a plaintiff when the defendant has not responded to a summons or has failed to app ...

of $12.5 million against him, and he and Liquid Capital were banned from further commodity trading. In addition, the court froze his assets. In March 2012, he pleaded guilty to passport fraud by attempting to acquire a new passport from by claiming his was lost. In reality, his passport was already confiscated by prosecutors. On March 16, 2012, Kim pleaded guilty to nine of the 26 counts against him, including grand larceny, scheme to defraud, violation of the NY General Business Law ( Martin Act), and falsifying business records in connection with the Ponzi scheme charge, and stealing $435,000 from the Christadora House. In April 2012, Kim was sentenced by Justice Charles H. Solomon in

New York State Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the superior court in the Judiciary of New York. It is vested with unlimited civil and criminal jurisdiction, although in many counties outside New York City it acts primarily as a court of civil ju ...

in Manhattan to five to 15 years in state prison, which was to commence after Kim had served seven months in federal prison on his passport fraud conviction.

References

External links

"Ex Parte Statutory Restraining Order Freezing Assets ..."
''CFTC v. BRIAN KIM and LIQUID CAPITAL MANAGEMENT, LLC'', Southern District of New York, February 15, 2011
"Order for Entry of Default Judgment Permanent Injunction and Ancillary Equitable Relief against Brian Kim and Liquid Capital Management, LLC"
''CFTC v. BRIAN KIM and LIQUID CAPITAL MANAGEMENT, LLC'', Southern District of New York, April 15, 2011
"Initial Decision on Default"
''In the Matter of: BRIAN KIM, and LIQUID CAPITAL MANAGEMENT, LLC, Registrants'', U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, November 9, 2012 {{DEFAULTSORT:Kim, Brian 1970s births Living people 21st-century American criminals American businesspeople convicted of crimes American chief executives of financial services companies American financial company founders American financiers American hedge fund managers American investors American prisoners and detainees American people convicted of fraud Businesspeople from New York City American confidence tricksters American people convicted of making false statements Criminals from New Jersey Criminals from New York City Dartmouth College alumni People from the East Village, Manhattan Prisoners and detainees of the United States federal government Pyramid and Ponzi schemes Year of birth missing (living people)