As part of his plea agreement, Mr. Hu agreed to forfeit more than $129 million, which representing the proceeds from his fraudulent activities.
The IIG Ponzi-like scheme to defraud investors
IIG claimed that specializes in global trade financing particularly in providing trade finance loans to small and medium-sized businesses. Its purported expertise was in trade finance loans to borrowers in Central or South America engage in “soft commodities” such as coffee, fishing, and other food products. Its trade finance loans were purportedly secured by collateral such as trade goods and assets held by borrowers of expected payments by third parties.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Mr. Hu admitted that he conspired to defraud investors from approximately 2017 to 2019. He carried out the IIG’s Ponzi-like scheme by overvaluing distressed loans held by IIG Funds and falsifying documents to create a series of loans that were fraudulent, which he presented as positively performing loans to hide losses.
