Imagine this.  Sometime on February 23, 2005, at the nouveau Palm Beach International Airport, a stout, pudgy gentleman with dark eyebrows and a slight sweat seen through his polo shirt appeared at the Business Class check-in.

Won Sok Lee, even in spite of the unseasonably cooler air, appeared to be feeling a lot of heat.  As though the authorities could jump out from the decorative palm trees at any moment, Lee moved about with a sense of leeriness.

Few thought it was unusual at the time,  but looking back few can hardly miss that he had used his frequent flier miles for a one-way ticket, absent any companions, and without much luggage.

He boarded his flight immediately, nervously facing a one hour transfer to Korean Air at LAX, and then the freedom of Seoul’s Incheon International Airport beyond. 

By the time he finished a fitful night of sleep in the Business Class cabin, the plane had landed in Seoul.  Lee knew he was a wanted fugitive about to be indicted in the U.S. for defrauding members of the West Palm Beach elite to the tune of 200-million dollars, but once here, he disemarked knowing that he was just one of millions of Korean men walking the streets of Seoul. 

He is probably here on business thought the passport contol officer as he yawned.  Lee hasn’t been spotted in over three years.  

* * *

New York’s Bernard Madoff may have inadvertently renewed interest in a financial criminal whose trail has gone cold, just because he robbed the same people who had already been robbed once before. 

The record-setting Ponzi fraud to the tune of $50-billion has reminded West Palm Beach’s jetset of the dark days of 2005 (which only now seem better by comparison). 

That is when they lost approximately $190-200 million of their wealth to the KL Group LLC, a triumvirate composed of Yung Bae Kim, brother John B. Kim, and their ringleader, Won Sok Lee.

Won Sok Lee and Yung Bae Kim were charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission (S.E.C) on August 31, 2005, after authorities uncovered KL Group’s scheme defrauding 250 investors with falsely generated profit reports.

Up until then, the three day-trader-turned-financiers had been living la vida loca.  Flashy cars and clothes, “proprietary” profit making methods which set the Palm Beach Country Club’s elite abuzz with the chance to ride their “dazzling” returns, and a luxury office adorned with the finest art and furniture.

Not bad for three guys who were neither certified to trade stock nor possessed actual asset management experience beyond day trading at home. 

Won Sok Lee and the Kim brothers leveraged their relationship with principal investor, real estate lawyer and golden goose Ronald S. Kochman, who gave them access to some of his wealthiest clients. 

As tens of millions of dollars flowed under their management, Lee and the Kims proceeded to lose millions each day by gambling on the market. 

Take for example their illogical bets shorting companies such as eBay, Yahoo!, and RIM (Research in Motion, maker of Blackberry devices) when the entire stock market was pushing the price upwards.   You know where these guys were headed… the list of Top 55 Out of Control Stock Traders. 

While Yung Bae Kim and his brother John have since snapped out of their delusions (and posh lifestyle) and put in guilty pleas in July 2007 and April 2008, respectively, Won Sok Lee still remains at-large.  

It’s very likely Lee will face penalties that are much stiffer than the maximum 20 years in prison and $250,000 fine that his compatriots have plead for.

But this is all dependent on his arrest first.  Has anyone seen him?

Where could Won Sok Lee be? 

We start the trail in Seoul, South Korea, home to ten million people and where his one-way flight terminated.

We can be certain he is not this Won Sok Lee on facebook,  but instead he’s likely posing as someone else under an assumed identity.

Consider that he may have taken with him, or through hidden bank accounts, considerable amounts of cash. 

Thinking of his past as prologue, we might be able to expect his ego to get the better of him and find him brazenly working in a similar post at a finance-related outfit in Yeouido.

Or, he may be working as an English teacher at a private language academy. 

It’s certainly plausible, considering how he is neither subject to the VSS (Vulnerable Sector Screening) for Canadians nor a criminal background check for an E-2 visa.

Fortunately, the story of murder suspect David Nam is a compelling case study to argue that even if Lee is working as an English teacher, his capture will come sooner rather than later.   

In that seminal 2008 case, the long-arm of justice prevailed only after a winding path of dead-ends, legal technicalities, and near misses. 

In 1998, two years after his alleged murder of a 75-year old man at the stoop of his home in a botched robbery attempt, Nam fled to South Korea and worked in a factory under an assumed name.  He was promptly nabbed after a television show revealed his whereabouts, but then promptly released because of a technicality. 

The U.S. and South Korea would only sign an extradition treaty later that year. 

This led to an eight-year search for him by the US FBI and South Korea police.  They discovered him in March 2008 teaching English at a private academy just a short drive from Seoul.  He was finally extradited to face charges.

One might say that that case was a dry run for a process that has now become much more integrated and cooperative.  Authorities in the U.S. may release a fresh WANTED bulletin to Korean authorities to tidy up this disastrous financial fraud case, and maybe restore some confidence back into the system.

Who knows?  An alert teacher may blow the case wide open and be the lynchpin to his arrest. 

More reading at [NY Times]

–James Kim is not hiding in Korea

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