(The Center Square) - Law enforcement agents arrested six Orange County residents charged in three separate indictments last week, according to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Central California.
These indictments allege that they committed identity theft so they could defraud the unemployment insurance system in California, apply for lines of credit from a lender, and use victims' homes as collateral.
The defendants were arrested on Wednesday, September 11, and arraigned in United States District Court in Santa Ana that same day.
The first indictment contains 31 counts and alleges that several defendants partook in a conspiracy that fraudulently obtained debit cards via the California Employment Development Department, an entity that administers the state's unemployment system. Those defendants include: Tien Vo, 43, of Westminster; Crystal Nguyen, 35, of Garden Grove; Thao Nguyen, 46, of Westminster; and Michelle Strange, 40, of Midway City.
Each defendant has been charged with 22 counts of bank fraud plus two counts of aggravated identity theft. Vo was charged with one count of possession of unauthorized access devices.
Between May 2020 and January 2022, the defendants allegedly got debit cards by fraudulently submitting unemployment applications in the names of identity theft victims.
During that time, EDD also administered Pandemic Unemployment Assistance benefits, something Congress authorized in 2020 due to mass unemployment amid the coronavirus pandemic. The defendants used those debit cards to withdraw $15,650 worth of unemployment insurance benefits from those cards.
Returned on August 7, 2024, the second indictment contains seven counts. It alleges that the defendants schemed to defraud banks using various stolen identities, some of which they obtained by stealing mail. The defendants allegedly used these stolen identities to "obtain lines of credit secured by the identity theft victims’ actual homes – and were secured without the victims’ knowledge or consent," a release said.
The three defendants here are: Chien Khang Bui, 36, of Anaheim; Nangialey Nick Wardak, 54, of Santa Ana; and Mandy Lynn McGrew, 35, of Santa Ana.
Between February 2020 and March 2022, Bui allegedly got the debit card numbers, bank account numbers, credit cards, home addresses, telephone numbers, and other personal identifying information belonging to identity theft victims. Bui then used that stolen information on online applications for home equity lines of credit with a mortgage-lending company. He linked each HELOC application to a bank account controlled by himself and the other conspirators.
Allegedly, the defendants lied to the mortgage company and said they were the individuals associated with each application and they owned the homes used as collateral. The conspiracy resulted in them receiving about $502,806 in fraudulently obtained HELOCs.
Each of the three defendants has been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud plus one count of aggravated identity theft. Plus, the court charged Bui with three counts of bank fraud for allegedly using stolen identities to fraudulently obtain coronavirus pandemic unemployment benefits from EDD in July and August of 2020.
“These indictments allege an organized criminal campaign of identity theft targeting banks, California’s unemployment insurance program, and homeowners alike,” United States Attorney Martin Estrada said.“Sophisticated fraud schemes, such as the ones alleged in these indictments, cause real damage to victims, and we will be diligent in rooting them out.”
Bu faces two counts of distribution of methamphetamine and one count of unlawfully possessing a firearm and ammunition in a third indictment, also returned on August 7, 2024.
Bui cannot legally possess firearms or ammo because of his criminal history, including felony convictions for "theft by false pretenses, second-degree commercial burglary, identity theft, identity theft with prior conviction, unlawful taking of a vehicle, and grand theft," the release said.
The defendants, if convicted of every charge, face a maximum of 30 years in federal prison for each bank fraud-related count, plus a mandatory consecutive sentence of two years in federal prison for each aggravated identity theft count.
Additionally, Vo would get up to 10 years in prison for the unauthorized possession of access devices count, while Bui would get a statutory maximum sentence of life imprisonment for the methamphetamine distribution counts, plus up to 15 years in federal prison for the unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition charge.
The FBI’s Orange County Asian Organized Crime Task Force is the investigator for these cases.
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