Scam pair charged
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department has charged a couple for masterminding a luxury vehicle, boat investment fraud scheme and pocketing almost $60m.
According to the Las Vegas-Review-Journal on Monday, Jong Rhee, 45, and Neelufar Rhee, 34, allegedly duped investors into believing the luxury items “would be resold to overseas buyers at massive profit margins.”
spend several days playing poker.”
The LVMPD stated the Rhees used the investor’s money to fund their lavish lifestyles, which included Jong’s participation in the World Series of Poker event in Las Vegas and similar tournaments, and “would often spend several days playing poker.”
Scam unravels
The LVMPD issued a news release with a YouTube link of some of the recovered vehicles, including a luxury motor yacht and Bugatti supercars.
Police claim the Rhees duo ran the alleged scam through two businesses they owned in Las Vegas and Henderson, namely Twisted Twins Motorsports LLC and Lusso Auto Spa.
could sell for $7.5m despite being valued at $526,000
Metro cited a case of a 2024 Rolls-Royce Spectre that Jong stated he could sell for $7.5m despite being valued at $526,000. The couple’s lavish lifestyle built on fraud, however, eventually caught up to them, with detectives finding texts revealing the Rhees “were under intense pressure due to mounting debts, delayed payments.”
Last October, a search warrant executed on both the Rhees’ $2m Henderson home and their businesses led to police seizing “dozens of high-end cars.”
Poker gamble fails
8 News Now Investigators cited police documents it obtained revealing that, in desperation, Jong bet the couple’s last $10,000 to gamble in the World Series of Poker in 2024.
That year at a poker event, police reports state, “Jong told Neelufar, ‘I don’t think I’ve lost 99% 4 [sic] times in [my] whole life now 4 [sic] times in one month.’” The report added Jong “believed that a big win would solve all of their money issues.”
Rhees’ face 78 felony charges
The Hail Mary didn’t arrive and instead the Rhees’ face 78 felony charges, including money laundering and racketeering, when they appear in court June 9.
