
WrkRiot CEO Pleads Guilty to Defrauding Employees - minimaxir
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-silicon-valley-ceo-pleads-guilty-defrauding-employees-tech-company-start
======
minimaxir
The prosecution started due to a very detailed account by Penny Kim about her
experience at "a Silicon Valley startup": [https://medium.com/startup-
grind/i-got-scammed-by-a-silicon-...](https://medium.com/startup-grind/i-got-
scammed-by-a-silicon-valley-startup-574ced8acdff)

The corresponding Hacker News thread doxxed WrkRiot and its employees, and
things escalated from there:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12379518](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12379518)

~~~
arenaninja
I remember this. There are only two points I don't fully agree with:

1\. The remarks of keeping anonymity online... I think that's just good OpSec
tbh. I'm on several sites and none that I can remember have a photo of me 2\.
The guy used to tout being a former JPMorgan Analyst... Maybe most people
don't realize Analyst is one of the lowest positions at these institutions? Or
the guy was just name-dropping the megabank

~~~
veidr
He was fraudulently name-dropping the megabank:

"Choi admitted in his plea... that he was never employed in any capacity by
any financial institution..."

------
fwdpropaganda
Oh I remember this. Good. I hope it costs him.

Honest question though:

> As part of his guilty plea, Choi admitted that while attempting to recruit
> potential employees, he made false and misleading statements about various
> topics, including his educational and professional history, and the amount
> of his wealth. Choi admitted in his plea that, in truth, he never attended
> any business school, that he was never employed in any capacity by any
> financial institution, and that he exaggerated his wealth.

Is "making misleading statements about various topics" a crime? If you tell
your employees that you went to whatever business school, or your net worth is
whatever etc etc... is that a crime?

~~~
thirtyseven
Misrepresenting yourself in a business transaction for your own benefit is
called fraud.

~~~
brianwawok
If you are broke but borrow a BMW from a friend to go to an important client
meeting fraud?

You misrepresented yourself. Maybe shady. Not sure if it is illegal. Clearly
there has to be more to it than that?

~~~
dragonwriter
Driving a BMW is not a representation of fact beyond maybe “I have permission
to drive this BMW”, and would thus not be a misrepresentation of fact,
material or otherwise.

------
Pyxl101
Does anyone have a link top the court docket or know how to find it? The case
is supposedly characterized as "United States v. Choi, 17-CR-308-EJD (N.D.
Cal.), 17-MJ-189-DUTY (C.D. Cal.)". I'd be very interested to read it,
especially what Choi said for himself in court.

~~~
mw6621
If you search PACER for "5:2017cr00308" it pops up for me.

The direct link to the case documents is: [https://ecf.cand.uscourts.gov/cgi-
bin/HistDocQry.pl?77183091...](https://ecf.cand.uscourts.gov/cgi-
bin/HistDocQry.pl?771830913741187-L_1_0-1)

PACER login required.

------
ww520
Well, they are taught to hustle, to do it first and ask for forgiveness later.
Soon or later someone is going to cross the line. I'm glad they are caught and
punished this time.

~~~
loeg
Who is "they" referring to?

------
gesman
Fake wire transfer?

Doesn't it take 24-48 hours max to materialize?

~~~
loeg
Yes. It was an extremely stupid move on his part.

~~~
TaylorGood
Using this case as leverage to a man who pulled the same on me. A “simple”
personal loan with months of lying and ultimately a fake wire receipt.

~~~
stanleydrew
Why not just file suit? That should provide decent leverage.

------
goodJobWalrus
Any lawyers here? How much can he get for this?

~~~
us0r
Up to 30 years.

~~~
spenczar5
Is that a realistic guess for what the sentence will be, or the theoretical
maximum?

~~~
us0r
That's the maximum. They didn't mention what they will recommend. If I had to
guess I would say 10 years.

~~~
brianwawok
It's white collar. I vote for 60 days and 3 years probation.

------
truthserum
He only pleaded guilty to 1 count of wire fraud and not all five that were
charged against him.

~~~
godzillabrennus
I would guess that his guilty plea is part of a plea deal that made this
happen fast without years of litigation.

------
smaili
Talk about closure, I'm sure those who were part of the scam can rest a little
bit easier I hope, albeit at a heavy cost.

To me, this was the scariest quote: _Isaac Choi aka Yi Suk Choi, Yisuk Choi,
Yi Suk Chae and Isaac Chae_. I mean seriously, how many names can a person go
by?

~~~
eropple
Many non-English-derived names (predominantly but not exclusively those from
Asian cultures--Hebrew comes to mind) transliterate in different ways into
English. If he'd had different translators at some point in his life, there
may be documents with different variants. Ditto "Isaac", which is close-enough
in terms of pronunciation that he may have adopted it later.

Or, in other words: there are two names there.

~~~
loeg
Taking an "American" first name (one that sounds vaguely phonetically similar
to the actual first name or not) is a common practice.

~~~
eropple
I get that; what I was trying to say is that it's "different enough" that most
people would call it a pseudonym rather than a transliteration. Hence, two
names.

------
dboreham
Sometimes it does all end in tears.

------
askafriend
"Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward
justice." \- MLK

~~~
rectang
That quote doesn't refer to criminal justice.

People know it from MLK, who was making a statement about the resilience of
the faithful and righteous. MLK was actually quoting the 19th century
abolitionist Theodore Parker, who was speaking of the inevitability of the end
of American slavery.

