Promoting the company as having great margins, Summit Asset Strategies, an investment consultation company in Bellevue, was indicted for making illegal commission by overstating the value of investment assets.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced on Sep. 4th that Chris Yoo and others are under indictment in the Washington State federal court. The SEC also stated that Chris Yoo and partakers agreed to pay back the illegal commission and fine, a sum of over one million three hundred thousand dollars.
Two outside accounting firms, Raymond Holmdel and Kanako Matsumoto, are also being indicted due to not exposing the bogus commision. They admit their mistakes without any disavowment, and agreed for three years to not take on business of listed corporations and companies regulated by the SEC.
Chirs Yoo agreed to a ban on him working in the field of investment.
Since Summit Asset Strategies can’t work due to the indictment, the impact on Koreans investors will be substantial. Although the company has had open business information sessions for Koreans and a few media companies reported extensively, the fact that investors couldn’t comprehend investment assets accurately has caused worries.
Chris Yoo claimed that in 2009 the economy journal Forbes selected Summit Asset as number one for the fastest growing Northwest asset management company with the high customer satisfaction. Also, he promoted that it was annually selected NABCAP’s selected consultative company and received the ‘Best of Bellevue’ prize as a financial consultant by USCA in 2011.
However, the SEC disclosed that CEO Yoo and the company swindled by overstating the investment assets and accounting firm remained idle.
As part of the scheme, Yoo falsely claimed that the fund owned a specific bank asset that had appreciated to approximately $2 million in value. In reality, the fund owned an entirely different asset that was worth less than $200,000.
The SEC of San Francisco has investigated Summit Asset’s embezzling commission. Summit Asset’s website says it is currently under constructions, but it is actually out of business.