John Kim, the head portfolio manager of KL Group, a collapsed hedge fund in West Palm Beach, Fla., was reportedly ordered arrested last week by U.S. District Judge Kenneth Ryskamp for defying an asset freeze on money intended to be returned to investors. According to a lawsuit the Securities and Exchange Commission brought against Kim last year, he defrauded investors of more than $200 million.
In the latest case, the judge said Kim improperly took $384,658 from the sale of a home in South Korea and $110,000 from the sale of a Mercedes and a Porsche. "Kim's inability to pay is unquestionably self-induced," Ryskamp wrote in his decision. "Kim's tactics essentially endorse violating asset freeze orders and then pleading inability to pay' if anyone caught him."
The SEC suit charged Kim, his brother Yung Bae Kim and partner Won Sok Lee of "massive hedge fund fraud" among 230 investors from 1999 to 2005.
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