A New York woman who founded 2 firms pleaded guilty on Friday to defrauding investors - including friends and family - out of more than $23 million by lying about her rates of return to cover up her growing trading losses.

Haena Park, who established Phaetra Capital Management LP and Argenta Group LLC, entered her plea in Manhattan federal court to one count of commodities fraud, admitting that she lied to her more than 40 investors. The 41-year-old Manhattan resident now faces up to 10 years in prison. She’s scheduled to be sentenced in April. As part of a plea deal, she agreed to forfeit nearly $23.2 million.

[As if federal authorities are likely to recover much, if any, of the $23.2 million.]

According to court papers ….   Park solicited investments from friends, family and former Harvard University classmates by touting herself as an accomplished forex trader who had generated annual returns of as high as 49%. In fact, she lost $19.5 million of the $20 million she traded, mostly in highly leveraged futures and forex transactions. She covered up the losses by generating fictitious account statements showed that investors were making money almost every month

Park, who according to school records graduated from Harvard in 1998 with a psychology degree, was arrested in June. She also faces lawsuits by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.