MUKILTEO—Mukilteo resident and Korean National Ga-ram “Andy” Park is being accused of operating a Ponzi scheme, targeting elderly Korean Americans, and resulting in investor losses of over $10 million.
Park is Founder and CEO of the crypto currency trading company Vehicle Mining Systems USA (VMS) which was founded in 2022 and promises high returns from Bitcoin and Ethereum mining. Through this crypto-based trading system, Park allegedly retained exclusive control over investors’ wallets (including MetaMask credentials) and is further accused of operating a “pump and dump” scheme involving VMS and VMS Classic coins, both of which were eventually delisted.
As of August 20, 2025, the value of one VMS is $0.00008564 USD.
Park previously served as a missionary at a Korean church in Lynnwood and established a religious-based nonprofit, Grace Frontier Mission, in Sacramento, CA, which his accusers now wonder is a cover up for his alleged fraud.
According to at least 50 of Park’s investors, and Victim Advocate Kory Hahn (also Chairman of the Washington State Republican Party Asian Pacific Islander Coalition), Park has intentionally been targeting vulnerable Washingtonians, Californians, and Oregonians, asking them to invest thousands before emptying out their wallets.
“There is a huge disconnect between ethnic communities and our justice system so without advocates like me, these victims would not know where to file complaints or retain an attorney,” Hahn told the Lynnwood Times.
Park currently has a house in Mukilteo worth $2 million and has real estate in California. He reportedly just opened up a new restaurant in Los Angeles called Peokki where he has promised to give free crypto currency to those who order food.
Park is known to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on luxury items (including a recent purchase of a $100,000 BMW SUV for his daughter) and Las Vegas gambling trips, according to Hahn.
On April 24, 2025, Park held a press conference denying his alleged victim’s claims, adding that VMS has been acting legally.
“Our company is a mining company that mines coins, by installing mining computers in vehicles, not a coin company,” said Park, adding that profits are returned to investors.
Just one day before Park held that press conference, his company, VMS, was accused of running a multi-level Ponzi scheme in the Los Angeles area.
Many of Park’s alleged victims fear speaking out against Park after he allegedly threatened to get their social security benefits cancelled. Some fear Park will take legal action.
However, one alleged victim, Young-Pok Kim, was willing to speak to the Lynnwood Times about his personal experience.
When Mr. Kim first met Park through an acquaintance he was asked, by Park, to recruit members of the Korean American community in Washington to invest in a crypto coin he invented called “Vehicle Binding System Coins.”
Park also set up MetaMask (a crypto wallet) platform on Mr. Kim’s phone, who is close to 70-years-old and didn’t understand how to maneuver setting up a crypto wallet. According to Mr. Kim, Park setup the passcode and identification himself – this information he kept instead of helping Mr. Kim navigate the software. Mr. Kim then paid admission via VMS coins.
Mr. Kim, and several other alleged victims who requested to remain anonymous also report that Mr. Park promised them a $200 bonus when their accounts began to make money but, two years later, he has made no attempt to pay that bonus.
When Mr. Kim began to see there was interest in his community of those wishing to invest in VMS coins, he decided to invest some of his own money, but Park wanted cash only, he told the Lynnwood Times with the help of a translator. He agreed to this, again not knowing how crypto transactions work, and purchased five million VMS coins from Park with cash.
Victim Advocate Kory Hahn suspects Park requested cash so that the deposit could not be traced.
In total, and through various transactions, Mr. Kim has purchased a total of $60,000 worth of VMS from Park.
Around the time that allegations began to surface regarding Park’s crypto business being a “Ponzi scheme” in the Los Angeles area, back in April, Mr. Kim logged in to his MetaMask account and noticed that his coin balance had been withdrawn. According to Mr. Kim, several other elderly Korean Americans in his community, who, like himself, had Park help set up their MetaMask accounts also found that their accounts had been withdrawn to zero.
Now Mr. Kim is asking Park’s other victims to have the courage to step up and speak out. In the United States alone Park is estimated to have allegedly stolen over $5 million from approximately 50 Korean Americans. Globally – including those in Korea, United Arab Emirates, and Taiwan – this amount leaps to $10 million in total since Park’s first reported “scam” in 2022.
In addition to VMS, Park has also orchestrated another crypto currency he calls VMS Classic which at one time was worth $2,800 a coin but has now crashed to $80 a coin.
Park is currently being investigated by U.S. and Korean authorities and has reportedly fled to South Korea. In the U.S. these investigating agencies include the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Washington State Department of Financial Institutions.
Hahn, as victim advocate, has filed a report with the DFI and has begun compiling evidence to build his case and submit it to the Department of Justice. He hopes to get a travel ban in place which would prevent Mr. Park from escaping to a Third World country, which may prolong his victims’ restitution.
“Time is of the essence since some of these victims have emptied out their life savings,” said Hahn. “One of Park’s victims in Oregon, who has dementia, lost their house because of him.”
Korean crypto currency scams have been on the rise as of late. In 2024 a South Korean influencer, along with 215 others, were arrested for leading a $232 million crypto scam, Korean news outlet Yonhap reported.
In the U.S., back in June of this year, four North Korean Nationals were charged in a five-count wire fraud and money laundering indictment arising from a scheme to be hired as remote IT workers and then steal and launder over $900,000 in virtual currency.
Author: Kienan Briscoe
2 Responses
Thats Kim Jung un he is Mongolian told me that and worked at the ministry of culture .
isn’t that the gangham style guy?