Newport lawyer accused of stealing $4.7 million from clients
A Newport Beach lawyer is accused of pocketing about $4.7 million he took from clients, including a couple seeking visas and a company trying to buy land in Gardena, according to a federal indictment released Tuesday.
Stephen Young Kang, 46, faces 20 counts of wire fraud and five counts of money laundering, authorities said.
If Kang is convicted, each wire fraud count could carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison, and each money laundering charge could carry a 10-year term, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles.
The indictment accuses Kang of telling the couple in 2011 that he would help them apply for a visa program that could grant them permanent resident, or green, cards if they invested $1 million in a business venture that would help create jobs in the United States.
Authorities believe Kang spent the couple’s money on his own personal and business expenses, according to the indictment.
When the couple demanded that Kang return their investment, he partially paid them back with money from Gardena-based food distribution company Ottogi America Inc., authorities allege.
Kang represented Ottogi in a land deal between 2012 and 2014, according to the indictment. During that time, Ottogi wired a total of $3.7 million into a trust so Kang could use it to buy properties in Gardena, U.S. attorney’s officials say.
Instead, the indictment alleges, Kang transferred the money into various bank accounts he controlled and ultimately spent much of it on himself or used it to pay back other investors he had cheated.
FBI and IRS special agents arrested Kang on Aug. 10 at Los Angeles International Airport, where he was boarding a flight to Seoul, South Korea, according to federal prosecutors.
He is free on $750,000 bond and is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday.
Authorities believe Kang may have had more victims. They asked that people who think he may have defrauded them call the FBI’s Los Angeles field office at (310) 477-6565.