Financial Fraud: Ho Shin Lee Was Indicted For Laundering From Appalachian State University

<h2>Los Angeles Man Indicted For Money Laundering Of &dollar;1&period;9 Million Stolen From Appalachian State University<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>CHARLOTTE&comma; N&period;C&period; – Ho Shin Lee&comma; 31&comma; of Los Angeles&comma; California&comma; was indicted by a federal grand jury in Charlotte for laundering more than &dollar;1&period;9 million stolen from Appalachian State University&comma; announced R&period; Andrew Murray&comma; U&period;S&period; Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina&period; The 14-count indictment was unsealed today&comma; following Lee’s arrest in California&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<div class&equals;"mh-content-ad"><script async src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;pagead2&period;googlesyndication&period;com&sol;pagead&sol;js&sol;adsbygoogle&period;js&quest;client&equals;ca-pub-9162800720558968"&NewLine; crossorigin&equals;"anonymous"><&sol;script>&NewLine;<ins class&equals;"adsbygoogle"&NewLine; style&equals;"display&colon;block&semi; text-align&colon;center&semi;"&NewLine; data-ad-layout&equals;"in-article"&NewLine; data-ad-format&equals;"fluid"&NewLine; data-ad-client&equals;"ca-pub-9162800720558968"&NewLine; data-ad-slot&equals;"1081854981"><&sol;ins>&NewLine;<script>&NewLine; &lpar;adsbygoogle &equals; window&period;adsbygoogle &vert;&vert; &lbrack;&rsqb;&rpar;&period;push&lpar;&lbrace;&rcub;&rpar;&semi;&NewLine;<&sol;script><&sol;div>&NewLine;<p>John A&period; Strong&comma; Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation &lpar;FBI&rpar;&comma; Charlotte Division joins U&period;S&period; Attorney Murray in making today’s announcement&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to allegations contained in the indictment&comma; on or about November 18&comma; 2016&comma; Lee applied to the Secretary of State of California to register Royce Hub Trading&comma; Inc&period; as a corporation in California&comma; claiming that the corporation was in the business &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;general merchandise&period;” Lee represented himself to be the Chief Executive Officer&comma; Secretary&comma; and Chief <a class&equals;"wpil&lowbar;keyword&lowbar;link" href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;fraudswatch&period;com&sol;tag&sol;financial-fraud&sol;amp&sol;" title&equals;"Financial" data-wpil-keyword-link&equals;"linked" data-wpil-monitor-id&equals;"841">Financial<&sol;a> Officer of Royce Hub Trading&period; The indictment alleges that on or about November 23&comma; 2016&comma; Lee opened a bank account with a financial institution in Los Angeles in the name of Royce Hub Trading&comma; Inc&period; Lee claimed to be president of Royce Hub Trading and was the sole account holder&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Court documents indicate that in 2016&comma; Appalachian State University &lpar;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Appalachian State”&rpar; awarded a contract to Rodgers Builders to build a new health sciences building at the university&period; On or about December 2&comma; 2016&comma; an employee at Appalachian State received an email from an unidentified individual purporting to be D&period;M&period;&comma; an employee of Rodgers Builders&period; The e-mail was sent from accounts&commat;rodgersbuildersinc&period;com &lpar;link sends e-mail&rpar;&period; The legitimate e-mail address for Rodgers Builders was &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;rodgersbuilders&period;com&period;” The fraudulent e-mail contained a direct deposit form and instructions to change Rodgers Builders’ previously submitted banking information to Lee’s newly opened bank account&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The indictment alleges that the Appalachian State employee changed the payment information as directed by the fraudulent e-mail&comma; and on or about December 8&comma; 2016&comma; a payment of approximately &dollar;1&comma;959&comma;925&period;02 intended for Rodgers Builders by Appalachian State was directed to the bank account controlled by Lee&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to the indictment&comma; on or about December 12&comma; 2016&comma; Lee received the fraud proceeds&comma; and quickly transferred the funds through a series of financial transactions out of his bank account&comma; knowing that the transactions were designed to conceal the nature&comma; location&comma; source&comma; ownership&comma; and control of the fraud proceeds&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Lee is charged with fourteen counts of money laundering&period; The maximum penalty for the each charge is twenty years in prison and a &dollar; 500&comma;000 fine&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The charges contained in the indictment are allegations&period; The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt in a court of law&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The FBI investigated the case&period; Assistant U&period;S&period; Attorney Kelli Ferry is in charge of the prosecution&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Appalachian State University To Receive &dollar;1&period;5 Million Distribution Resulting From U&period;S&period; Attorney&&num;8217&semi;s Office Civil Forfeiture Action<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p><strong>U&period;S&period; Attorney’s Office Collects &dollar;23&period;4 Million in Civil and Criminal Actions in Fiscal Year 2017<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>CHARLOTTE&comma; N&period;C&period; – U&period;S&period; Attorney R&period; Andrew Murray announced that &dollar;1&comma;542&comma;442&period;33 will be distributed to Appalachian State University &lpar;ASU&rpar; following successful civil forfeiture proceedings against money seized from bank accounts controlled by alleged fraudsters and money launderers who targeted the higher education institution&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>U&period;S&period; Attorney Murray is joined in making today’s announcement by John A&period; Strong&comma; Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation&comma; Charlotte office&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Today’s announcement is an example of the results we get when we use civil forfeiture laws to swiftly stop crime and provide financial relief to victims of fraud&comma;” said U&period;S&period; Attorney Murray&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;In this case&comma; the FBI located and seized the stolen funds even before criminal investigative targets had been identified or a criminal case had been filed&period; Under these circumstances&comma; civil forfeiture is the only area of law that enables law enforcement to swiftly obtain warrants to secure stolen funds&comma; and to prevent the perpetrators of fraud from accessing them&period; Identifying and seizing ill-gotten gains and returning forfeited funds to victims is a priority for my office&period; I will use all of the tools at my disposal to make victims whole&comma; and civil asset forfeiture is an invaluable tool in that arsenal&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to allegations contained in the civil forfeiture complaint&comma; beginning in or around December 2016&comma; one or more alleged fraudsters convinced ASU staff to forward over &dollar;1&period;9 million to one or more companies operated by them&period; According to court records&comma; the fraudsters posed in emails as a legitimate construction company building ASU’s new health sciences facility&period; After receiving the funds&comma; the alleged fraudsters used numerous bank wire transfers to launder the money among various companies&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Court records indicate that&comma; upon discovery of the fraud&comma; ASU notified the FBI and fully assisted in the investigation&period; The FBI ultimately located &dollar;1&comma;542&comma;442&period;33 of the money dispersed in multiple bank accounts and obtained forfeiture seizure warrants for it&comma; preventing the wrongdoers from absconding with ASU’s funds&period; Following that&comma; the U&period;S&period; Attorney’s Office filed a civil complaint in federal court&period; Upon conclusion of the civil forfeiture case&comma; the Department of Justice’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section authorized distribution of all forfeited funds to ASU&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In making today’s announcement&comma; U&period;S&period; Attorney Murray commended the work of the FBI&period; U&period;S&period; Attorney Murray also thanks ASU officials for their prompt efforts to notify law enforcement of the fraud&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Assistant United States Attorney Benjamin Bain-Creed of the United States Attorney’s Office in Charlotte handled the proceedings&period; &lpar;Docket No&period; 5&colon;17-cv-81&rpar;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Criminal and Civil Actions Collections in Fiscal Year 2017<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In Fiscal Year 2017&comma; the Western District of North Carolina &lpar;WDNC&rpar; collected &dollar;23&comma;476&comma;979&period;90 in criminal and civil actions&period; Of this amount&comma; &dollar;4&comma;719&comma;016&period;01 was collected in criminal actions and &dollar;18&comma;757&comma;963&period;89 was collected in civil actions&period; Additionally&comma; WDNC worked with other U&period;S&period; Attorney’s Offices and components of the Department of Justice to collect an additional &dollar;7&comma;216&comma;680&period;36 in cases pursued jointly with these offices&period; Overall&comma; the Justice Department collected just over &dollar;15 billion in civil and criminal actions in the fiscal year ending Sept&period; 30&comma; 2017&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The U&period;S&period; Attorneys’ Offices&comma; along with the department’s litigating divisions&comma; are responsible for enforcing and collecting civil and criminal debts owed to the U&period;S&period; and criminal debts owed to federal crime victims&period; The law requires defendants to pay restitution to victims of certain federal crimes who have suffered a physical injury or financial loss&period; While restitution is paid to the victim&comma; criminal fines and felony assessments are paid to the Justice Department’s Crime Victims’ Fund&comma; which distributes the funds to state victim compensation and victim assistance programs&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The U&period;S&period; Attorney’s Office&comma; working with partner agencies and divisions&comma; also collected &dollar;2&comma;768&comma;013 in asset forfeiture actions in FY 2017&period; Forfeited assets deposited into the Department of Justice Assets Forfeiture Fund are used to restore funds to crime victims and for a variety of law enforcement purposes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Every day&comma; federal prosecutors and staff in the U&period;S&period; Attorney’s Office work hard to protect the citizens of the Western District of North Carolina and to ensure that criminals do not profit from their illegal activities&comma;” said U&period;S&period; Attorney Murray&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Their diligent efforts enable us to achieve justice&comma; recover taxpayer dollars&comma; secure restitution for victims of federal crimes&comma; and protect the public from fraud&comma; waste and abuse&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;justice&period;gov&sol;usao-wdnc&sol;pr&sol;los-angeles-man-indicted-money-laundering-19-million-stolen-appalachian-state">Original PressReleases&&num;8230&semi;<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;

Financial Fraud