Former Chicagoan gets 12 years in stock, tax fraud

Editor’s note: FEDs, why do you indict Cho and let the criminals in the Probate Court of Cook County continue to rob the dead, dying, disabled and aged every day??? Why don’t you at least question the victims? Take statements? You know who the victims are. Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com

Former Chicagoan gets 12 years in stock, tax fraud

By Samantha Bomkamp
Tribune reporter
2:59 PM CST, January 18, 2013

A former Chicago man was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison Friday for running an investment scheme that officials say defrauded investors out of millions of dollars.

The Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois said Randy M. Cho, most recently of Seattle, tricked 57 investors out of about $8 million through phony stock investments from 2001 to 2009. Cho, claiming to be a self-employed securities trader, took $9.6 million from investors and made about $1.7 million in Ponzi scheme-type payments to previous investors, officials said.

Cho claimed to have access to stocks in many well-known companies before their initial public offerings, officials said, including AOL/Time Warner Inc., Google Inc. and Facebook Inc.

Officials also said he failed to report additional income between 2004 and 2007, underpaying federal income taxes by about $1.5 million.

Cho pleaded guilty to wire and tax fraud in August after being indicted in December 2010.

sbomkamp@tribune.com | @SamWillTravel

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-former-chicagoan-gets-12-years-in-stock-tax-fraud-20130118,0,5298392.story