A Korean-American investment counselor in Beverly Hills has been fined $1.8 million for engaging in a securities fraud scheme to earn ill-gotten gains.
The investment advisor was accused of helping Citron Research’s Andrew Left, a “short-selling legend” on Wall Street, profit from a scheme in which he fed false information about stocks to the public and then traded against them.
On October 22, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that Ryan Choi, 35, a Beverly Hills-based investment counselor, has agreed to pay $1,827,266 to settle charges that he participated in Citron Research’s securities trading process and profited from it.
Choi was charged by the SEC in December 2020 with violating securities laws after collaborating with Left in tweets containing two buy recommendations through Citron Research. According to the complaint, Choi provided the content to support Left’s stock recommendations without adequate research. When the price of a stock changed shortly after Citron Research published the content provided by Choi, he allegedly made immediate trades, totaling $1,647,217 in profits.
SEC said in a press release that Choi agreed to pay more than $1.8 million, including a civil penalty, disgorgement, and prejudgement interest.
Previously, Left was indicted in July for allegedly misleading the public about the stock through reports and on-air appearances, and then trading in the stock for unjust gains. Left was widely known for his short-selling of GameStop during the GameStop incident of 2021 when retail investors waged a war against short-sellers.
BY YEOL JANG, HOONSIK WOO [woo.hoonsik@koreadaily.com]
