A 41-year-old bankrupt stockbroker tried to commit suicide this week amid mounting questions about the whereabouts of millions of dollars taken from investors, many of them wooed at the exclusive Governors Club in Brentwood.
Most of the questions have yet to be answered by Brentwood stockbroker Michael Jinyong Park, who was in a hospital Wednesday with self-inflicted knife wounds to his wrist and a stab wound to his abdomen, Metro police said.
Park sent some of his investors a letter last week saying their account with Park Capital Management Group "has no current liquid value."
What investors do know is that Park seemed a smart, successful stockbroker who drove around in a Mercedes and a Porsche and who offered, in many cases, as much as a 20 percent annual return during a time when the stock market was sinking.
"He seemed to have an answer for everything,'' said Michael Siriyutwatana, a 37-year-old who invested his retirement account with Park. "All of this has happened so fast. One day you think you have this much, and suddenly you don't."
Siriyutwatana and his family own Royal Thai restaurants in the Nashville area. He said Park was a regular customer, and they seemed to have things in common. For instance, Park said he attended Father Ryan High School, just like Siriyutwatana.
"He's a pretty friendly guy and he had good charisma,'' Siriyutwatana said.
Plus, when Siriyutwatana had questions about his account and the better-than-average returns, Park seemed to have plausible explanations, saying he was investing in stock options. Siriyutwatana got regular account statements that listed his holdings from a real brokerage house, 1st Discount Brokerage in West Palm Beach, Fla.
But Siriyutwatana said he also wrote checks to Park Capital Management Group in Brentwood, which isn't listed as a registered firm with FINRA, the brokerage industry's regulatory arm.
Park's letter to clients said money held in accounts with 1st Discount Brokerage still is available but that money with Park Capital is not.
Representatives of 1st Discount Brokerage could not be reached for comment. Park also couldn't be reached.
Park ended his letter to investors with the words: "I want you to know that it was not my intention nor did I ever think that things would come to this end. … If you allow, I hope to be able to speak with you at some point in the future to explain."
Case may be delayedHis lawyer, John McLemore, said Wednesday that he didn't have enough information to talk about the case. He said he might ask a judge for a delay in Park's bankruptcy case after the attempted suicide of his client.
The case recalls last summer's investment scandal, when Murfreesboro philanthropist Robert W. McLean committed suicide after investors claimed his Ponzi scheme had robbed them of close to $50 million. That case still is winding its way through the federal bankruptcy system.
Park, who is married and has two children, called a family friend to tell her he was taking his own life Monday night, said Metro Nashville police spokesman Don Aaron.
Police were called to his $1.7 million home at 133 Woodward Hills Place in Brentwood after 9:30 p.m. Monday, where they found Park with cuts to his wrist and a stab wound to his abdomen, apparently made with a kitchen knife, Aaron said.
Park, who lives in a gated subdivision in Davidson County near Williamson County, was taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where he is expected to survive, said McLemore. The hospital wouldn't release details about Park's condition.
Federal investigators have been asking questions about the case. Park's letter to investors said "compliance officers" had shut down his office, although he didn't elaborate.
"I've got everything from an individual investing more than $40,000 to someone investing more than $1 million (with Park),'' said attorney Will Cheek III, who said he had been contacted by seven investors seeking representation. "There are a lot of smaller investors who had their life savings tied up with Mr. Park."
Cheek and Bill Norton, another attorney who has been contacted by Park's investors, said several clients met Park at The Governors Club in Brentwood.
"The fact he attempted to commit suicide means he's at the end of his rope,'' Cheek said. "He may not have any more assets than what you see when you go to his house."
Investors' hopes fallCheek said a lot of investors were hoping for hidden assets somewhere, but the attempted suicide dampens that hope.
Park has a 19-page public record littered with complaints over more than a decade from customers and brokerages filed with FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. He also has had at least one lawsuit filed against him.
The complaints accuse Park of trading clients' money without their authorization or of taking loans from customers in violation of securities laws. Ohio barred him from selling securities in 2000.
Brokerages Edward Jones and Raymond James Financial both fired him, in 1998 and 2000, respectively, according to FINRA's records.
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