KL Group

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced today that on March 2, 2005, it filed an emergency civil action to halt a massive fraud by a group of Palm Beach, Florida based hedge funds, their principals, their unregistered investment advisers, and an affiliated registered broker-dealer. According to the SEC’s complaint, the defendants conducted a fraudulent scheme that has resulted in the loss of most, if not all, of the $81 million raised from investors. The Commission’s complaint names many defendants for their roles in this hedge fund fraud. The complaint names K.L. Group, LLC, KL Florida, LLC and KL Triangulum Management, LLC, for their violations while acting as investment advisers to the hedge fund defendants. In addition, the complaint names the hedge funds, KL Group Fund, LLC, KL Financial Group Florida LLC, KL Financial Group DB Fund, LLC, KL Financial Group DC Fund, LLC, KL Financial Group IR Fund, LLC, and KL Triangulum Group Fund, LLC, as defendants. The complaint also names the principals of the investment advisers and hedge funds – Won Sok Lee (of Singer Island, Fla.), John Kim (of Jupiter, Florida), and Yung Bae Kim (of Irvine, Calif.) – as defendants. Finally, the Commission’s complaint names as a defendant Shoreland Trading LLC, an Irvine, California based broker-dealer that defendant Lee controlled and that conducted all of the trading for the various hedge funds.