Financial Fraud: Jonathan Chang Convicted Of Four Counts Of Wire Fraud And Three Counts Of Money Laundering

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<h2>Cupertino Man Convicted Of Embezzling More Than &dollar;7&period;5 Million In Donated Funds<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p><strong>Jonathan Chang misappropriated religious donations and church funds<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>SAN JOSE &&num;8211&semi; A federal jury convicted Jonathan Chang of four counts of wire fraud and three counts of money laundering&comma; announced United States Attorney David L&period; Anderson and Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in Charge John F&period; Bennett&period; The verdict follows a four-week trial before the Honorable Edward J&period; Davila&comma; United States District Judge&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The evidence at trial demonstrated that Jonathan Chang&comma; 63&comma; of Cupertino&comma; Calif&period;&comma; engaged in a scheme to defraud a wealthy donor of money intended to support the Home of Christ 4 Christian Church &lpar;HOC4&rpar;&comma; located in Saratoga&comma; Calif&period; Chang&comma; who served as an &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;elder” responsible for managing the finances of the church&comma; furthered his scheme by establishing charitable organizations with names similar to the church&period; He then directed more than &dollar;6 million from the donor to his own organizations rather than to the HOC4&period; In addition&comma; Chang embezzled approximately &dollar;900&comma;000 from HOC4-related bank accounts in his scheme to defraud&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The jury concluded that Chang solicited funds from the wealthy donor for the stated purpose of acquiring a new HOC4 building &lpar;church house&rpar; and purported missionary work&period; In response to Chang’s requests&comma; the donor provided &dollar;2&period;25 million in one-time donations&comma; a &dollar;3 million <a class&equals;"wpil&lowbar;keyword&lowbar;link" href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;fraudswatch&period;com&sol;category&sol;loans&sol;" title&equals;"loan" data-wpil-keyword-link&equals;"linked" data-wpil-monitor-id&equals;"311">loan<&sol;a> to acquire the new building&comma; and approximately &dollar;1&period;5 million total in monthly donations&period; Chang did not use the funds as directed and authorized by the donor&period; Instead&comma; he commonly used the funds for personal enrichment&period; For example&comma; Chang used the funds to buy a number of houses in the Bay Area&comma; purchase luxury vehicles&comma; obtain 15 timeshare interests&comma; invest in commercial real estate&comma; and pay for his health insurance and athletic club dues&period; The evidence also showed that Chang purchased a home in Fremont with the donor’s funds and then leased the house to one of the donor’s companies&comma; thereby collecting rent on a house that was purchased with funds the donor earmarked for religious purposes&period; Similarly&comma; Chang purchased another home with donor funds that were designated for religious purposes&comma; but ultimately rented the home to one of his children&period; In total&comma; between 2004 and January 2016&comma; Chang obtained more than &dollar;7&period;5 million in funds from the donor and HOC4&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Chang also concealed the proceeds of his scheme to defraud by committing money laundering&period; The evidence at trial demonstrated Chang created fraudulent entities to conceal the wire fraud scheme and forwarded the funds to a variety of other bank accounts he controlled before spending the money on personal purchases&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>On February 4&comma; 2016&comma; a federal grand jury indicted Chang and his wife&comma; Grace Chang&comma; 60&comma; charging each with one count of conspiracy to commit wire or mail fraud&comma; in violation of 18 U&period;S&period;C&period; § 1349&semi; four counts of wire fraud&comma; in violation of 18 U&period;S&period;C&period; § 1343&semi; one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering&comma; in violation of 18 U&period;S&period;C&period; § 1956&lpar;h&rpar;&semi; and three counts of money laundering&comma; in violation of 21 U&period;S&period;C&period; § 1956&lpar;a&rpar;&period; The jury found Jonathan Chang guilty of all the wire fraud and money laundering counts&period; The jury did not reach a verdict as to the two charged conspiracy counts&comma; nor did the jury reach a verdict as to the counts filed against Grace Chang&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Jonathan Chang faces a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of &dollar;250&comma;000 for each violation of 18 U&period;S&period;C&period; § 1343&period; He also face a maximum of 20 years imprisonment and fine of &dollar;500&comma;000 or twice the value of the laundered funds&comma; whichever is greater&comma; for each violation of 18 U&period;S&period;C&period; § 1956&lpar;a&rpar;&lpar;1&rpar;&lpar;B&rpar;&period; Additional periods of supervised release&comma; fines and restitution may apply&period; However&comma; any sentence following conviction would be imposed by the court only after consideration of the U&period;S&period; Sentencing Guidelines and the federal statute governing the imposition of a sentence&comma; 18 U&period;S&period;C&period; § 3553&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Jonathan and Grace Chang are scheduled to appear before Judge Davila on September 17&comma; 2019 for a status conference&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Assistant U&period;S&period; Attorneys Patrick R&period; Delahunty and Sarah E&period; Griswold are prosecuting the case with the assistance of Susan Kreider&period; The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the FBI&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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