John Won, Foreign Exchange Fraud and Money Laundering, New York 2022

A Queens man has been sentenced to prison for his role in a foreign exchange fraud scheme that targeted members of the Korean-American community.

John Won, 53, of Whitestone, New York, was sentenced to 1 year and 1 day in prison by United States District Judge Raymond J. Dearie in federal court in Brooklyn on November 2021 conviction on all counts, including securities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy, as well as substantive securities fraud.

Won was also ordered to pay $842,076.81 in restitution to the victims of his crimes.

Won’s co-defendant, Tae Hung Kang, also known as Kevin Kang, 57, of Bayside, New York, pleaded guilty to securities fraud conspiracy and was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment in December 2021.

“John Won and Kevin Kang shamelessly defrauded members of the Korean-American community in our district out of their nest eggs and life savings,” said Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. “This sentence shows what fraudsters and con men should expect when they target innocent victims—they will be caught, punished and ordered to return their ill-gotten gains.”

The scheme, which took place between October 2010 and December 2013, involved Won and his co-conspirators defrauding victims into investing in foreign exchange trading accounts and in their company, called ForexNPower. The conspirators issued advertisements in Korean-language newspapers and on Korean-language radio stations claiming that ForexNPower had a secret algorithmic trading method used to trade in the foreign exchange market that guaranteed investors 10% monthly returns at no risk of loss.

The government’s case is being handled by the Office’s Business and Securities Fraud Section. Assistant United States Attorneys Sarah M. Evans, Nicholas J. Moscow and Assistant Chief Gerald M. Moody, Jr. are in charge of the prosecution.