S. Korean court to extradite Korean-American in fraud case

SEOUL, March 4 (Yonhap) -- A South Korean court has decided to hand over a Korean-American man under a bilateral extradition treaty on suspicions of fraud that allegedly took place in the United States, the court said Wednesday.

The Seoul High Court recently ruled against the man, identified only by his
surname Lee, who had fled to South Korea after inflicting losses of US$200
million on investors through the operation of hedge funds in 2005.
Lee and two other Korean-Americans set up three to four hedge funds in Florida
before they went bankrupt. They attracted customers by falsely claiming they
could expect yields of 150 percent, the court said.
Lee's two accomplices were sentenced to more than 10 years in prison after being
arrested in the U.S., while Lee was arrested in South Korea on Feb. 3.
U.S. police had obtained an arrest warrant for Lee and asked South Korea to hand
him over.
The justice ministry is expected to extradite him to the U.S. soon.
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