U.S. prosecutors Charge 53 in Id Theft, Bank Fraud Scheme — Federal prosecutors in New Jersey say 53 people are charged in a widespread identity theft and fraud investigation. The U.S. Attorney’s Office says the scheme spanned several states. The case is United States v. Sang-Hyun Park, 10-mj-4147, U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey (Newark).
Law officers arrested 47 people today. Five remain at large, and one, Kang Hyok Choi, was in custody already since his 2008 arrest following a triple murder in Tenafly, New Jersey. The defendants were scheduled to appear today in federal court in Newark.
The lead defendant is Sang-Hyun Park, 44, of Palisades Park, New Jersey. Most of the suspects are Korean.
Park’s organization advertised in local Korean newspapers that “he and his co-conspirators could obtain driver’s licenses, credit cards, and money for their customers, virtually all of whom were of Korean descent,” according to his 138-page arrest complaint.
Nathan Buschman, 31, a manager at a JPMorgan Chase & Co. branch in Edgewater, New Jersey, and Zakchary Benji, 28, a loan officer at a Citibank Inc. branch in Clifton, New Jersey, were charged in one complaint with helping to defraud the U.S. Small Business Administration by creating fake documents.
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Bloomberg U.S. Charges 53 in New Jersey Identity-Theft Scheme