Federal Way woman pleads guilty to wire, bank fraud
Published 2:30 pm Monday, July 6, 2026
The 53-year-old woman presented herself as an investment advisor and defrauded $3 million from people in the Korean community, many of whom are elderly.
A Federal Way woman has pleaded guilty to three counts of wire fraud and two counts of bank fraud in connection with a fake financial advisor scheme where she targeted people in the Korean community to fund personal expenses and her gambling addiction.
On July 2, Jenni Yoon Jeong Lee, 53, pleaded guilty in Seattle’s US District Court following an FBI investigation. Investigators found that Lee had defrauded at least 28 people of over $3 million and that many of her victims had been elderly and were “relying on the funds for retirement.”
Lee had advertised herself as an investment advisor who took the $3 million of “investments” and put them…
Identity theft is the “foundational” fraud upon which many other crimes are built. It involves the unauthorized acquisition and use of a person’s personal identifying information (PII), such as an ID number, Social Security number, or passport details.
- How it works: Fraudsters obtain PII through data breaches, mail theft, or “social engineering” (tricking people into revealing details). Once they have this data, they can open new bank accounts, apply for credit cards or loans, and even receive medical treatment under your name.
- Synthetic Identity Fraud: A sophisticated variation where criminals combine real and fabricated information to create a completely new, “synthetic” person. This is particularly difficult to detect because there is no single victim to report the suspicious activity initially.