The payment of settlement funds agreed in November between Hmong College Prep Academy and the New Jersey hedge fund that lost more than $4 million of the St. Paul charter school’s money continues to be delayed.
Last year a settlement in the matter was reached between investment manager Clark Reiner, the hedge fund Woodstock Capital Partners and Hmong College Prep Academy. Under that agreement, Reiner and Woodstock are to pay Hmong College Prep Academy $400,000.
While they were obligated to pay the sum by December, the funds were still not available as of Wednesday, according to a status conference held by Judge Douglas L. Micko in U.S. District Court.
“My clients have provided the following information for this update: ‘We continue to have difficulty and delay on this transaction clearing and available to be used for settlement purposes,’” said attorney Mathew Meyer, who represents Reiner and Woodstock, in a May 9 letter to Micko.
Hmong College Prep Academy sued Woodstock in federal court in 2021 after the school’s founder and former superintendent Christianna Hang’s 2019 investment of $5 million lost $4.3 million. Officials with Hmong College Prep Academy said at the time that Reiner and Woodstock Capital contacted the school multiple times in 2019 as it explored investment opportunities to help pay for a school construction project.
According to the school’s 2021 year-end audit, the value of the investment had fallen from $5 million to $684,762 without school officials knowing what had happened to the rest of the money. Minnesota law prohibits schools from investing in hedge funds, which often use risky investment strategies.
Hmong College Prep Academy did not provide immediately comment on the settlement agreement Wednesday.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison in December sued Hang, alleging she invested the $5 million without the approval of the school’s board of directors, in violation of state law and against the advice of the school’s lawyer and accountant.
Hang chose Woodstock on the advice of Kay Yang, an unregistered investor from Wisconsin, according to Ellison’s complaint.
A federal court in Wisconsin later ordered Yang to pay millions in restitution and penalties related to her unregistered investment activity. Hang and her husband lost $125,000 of their own money investing with Yang, Ellison said.
The FBI searched Yang’s suburban-Milwaukee home in 2022 as part of a money laundering and wire fraud investigation. Yang hasn’t been charged in connection with that investigation, but she was convicted at trial last month on charges of felony criminal slander of title; prosecutors alleged she tried to cloud the title of her former home, which went through foreclosure after the FBI raid.
Josh Verges contributed to this report.
Related Articles
Snelling Ave. and St. Clair Ave. intersection closing intermittently
Group calls for Target to apologize, St. Paul PD to look at false reporting after 2 men accused of being armed
Ex-volunteer with Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office youth program gets probation for sexually abusing girl
West Seventh Pharmacy to close after 110 years
Twins ready for three-city “Minor League Road Trip”
Leave a Reply