A Wisconsin woman with ties to a St. Paul charter school was charged Wednesday with securities fraud for allegedly defrauding Hmong-American investors in Minnesota, Wisconsin and six other states.
Kay Yang, 40, raised at least $16.5 million from around 70 investors between April 2017 and April 2021, according to a civil complaint filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission in U.S. District Court in Wisconsin. Today, almost nothing is left.
The SEC says most of Yang’s investors are “members of the Hmong-American communities in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Some of these investors do not speak English as a first language, and some of them were not sophisticated investors.”
Yang did not return a phone message Wednesday, and no attorney was listed in the court file.
SEC ALLEGATIONS
Yang told investors she would pool and invest their funds in stocks and foreign currency trading. But of that $16.5 million, the SEC alleges:
- Just $7.1 million actually was used in foreign exchange trading, incurring $3.5 million in trading losses, commissions and fees;
- $3.3 million went toward Yang’s business expenses;
- $2.7 million was repaid to investors in Yang’s Xapphire and AK Equity funds;
- $400,000 was used to repay investors in a previous venture; and
- $4.5 million or more was spent to benefit Yang or members of her family.
Yang and her husband, 47-year-old Chao Yang, who also is charged in the complaint, allegedly spent over $3 million on real estate, living expenses, travel and…
