UPDATE: Accused Thief, Bail-Jumper, Passport Fraudster And Ponzi Fugitive Brian Kim Arrested In Hong Kong And Returned To The United States

Captured In Hong Kong: Former TV analyst and accused Ponzi schemer Brian Kim.

UPDATE: On the lam for 10 months, accused Ponzi-scheme fugitive Brian Kim was arrested last month and returned to the United States from Kong Kong, authorities said yesterday.

Kim, 36, is a former analyst who appeared as a CNBC commentator on issues such as the Dubai debt crisis and so-called “dark pools.” Investigators said he was involved in at least two fraud schemes while holding forth on TV.  Kim high-tailed it out of the United States before he could be tried in early January on state charges of stealing $430,000 from Christadora House, the New York condominium complex at which he resided, authorities said.

Even as the theft matter was being investigated and prosecuted, Kim was at the helm of a separate, $6 million Ponzi scheme, said Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance. The CFTC also charged Kim in the alleged Ponzi caper, which operated through a firm known as Liquid Capital Management LLC.

Vance next brought a state grand-jury indictment against Kim for bail-jumping, and federal prosecutors charged him with passport fraud.

Authorities did not say when Kim was caught in Hong Kong. Vance said the U.S. Marshals Service, the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Consulate in Hong Kong and Chinese officials cooperated in bringing Kim back to the United States to face justice.

In April, a federal judge ordered Kim to pay restitution and civil penalties of more than $12.5 million in the case brought by the CFTC.

Like accused Ponzi schemer Andy Bowdoin of AdSurfDaily, Kim will face a civil judgment while battling criminal Ponzi charges.

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