A Chinese national has been sentenced to more than five years in federal prison for taking part in a fraud scheme in which he redeemed more than $2 million in gift cards purchased by victims throughout the United States.
Upon completion of his prison term, Wang is expected to face deportation proceedings, the office said.
“Mr. Wang preyed on vulnerable victims to enrich himself and his co-conspirators to the tune of $2,285,039.81, and on [a recording] boasted about defrauding senior citizens,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney John A. Sarcone III said in a statement.
From June 2019 to June 2021, Wang received gift card numbers and PINs electronically from co-conspirators overseas, including those in China, prosecutors said. The co-conspirators obtained the information by targeting victims in online and telephone fraud schemes and persuading them to purchase gift cards and reveal the card information. Wang then used the fraudulently obtained gift card information to purchase additional gift cards at Walmart and Sam’s Club stores in Florida.
During the two-year period, Wang went to a total of 140 Walmart and Sam’s Club stores in Florida, prosecutors said.
To avoid raising suspicions and conceal the volume of his gift card redemptions, Wang often used different registers within the same store and visited several stores on the same day.
Prosecutors said Wang also redeemed gift cards within hours or even minutes of victims purchasing them.
Prosecutors said that a secretly recorded conversation between Wang and an FBI agent showed the defendant was aware of the fraud scheme, as he made remarks such as “The only loser is the lady,” “We all know. Easy to know. Only this lady lost $1,000,” and “Other than this lady, everybody’s happy.”
However, Wang “never interacted” with the victims directly, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
Wang’s lawyer, in a sentencing memorandum filed in early June, argued that his client should be sentenced to 30 months in prison, due to his “failing health” and the “complete absence of any criminal history.”
Additionally, the lawyer argued that his client “played a limited part” in the fraud scheme.
“He redeemed gift cards that a China-based operation directed to him and passed the resulting value back to that operation,” the lawyer wrote. “He did not design the scheme, he did not contact the victims, and the record does not establish that he kept its proceeds.”
Prosecutors argued in their sentencing memorandum filed in early June that Wang should receive a sentence between 70 and 87 months.
“When confronted about his gift card redemption activities, the defendant repeatedly lied about the nature and scope of his redemptions,” prosecutors wrote. “He knew exactly what he was doing, but he kept at it for years.”
In addition to his prison sentence, Wang was ordered to forfeit $2,285,039.81 and pay $275,634.27 in restitution to identified victims.
“Fraud is one of the most pervasive threats facing our communities today, but the FBI is relentless in our mission to aggressively investigate and bring to justice anyone responsible for stealing from hardworking Americans,” Craig L. Tremaroli, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Albany field office, said in a statement.
