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Englewood Cliffs loan broker pleads guilty in massive Bergen-based ID theft ‘superstore’

BEHIND THE STORY: Another defendant admitted in federal court today to playing a major role in a Bergen County-based “crime superstore” that stole identities from people in Asia to get credit cards and bank loans that were used to buy fancy cars, fine whiskey and designer shoes.

Photo Credit: Cliffview Pilot File Photo

Matthew J. Kang, 44, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., pleaded guilty to several charges, while admitting that he obtained and brokered Social Security cards with the prefix “586” and counterfeit driver’s licenses for the operation’s mastermind, Sang-Hyun “Jimmy” Park.

As a member of a “build-up” team working closely with Park, Kang said, he fraudulently established credit histories and scores for customers using the 586 identities – which are issued by the U.S. government to Chinese nationals working in American territories, such as Guam.

A little finagling helped the group build credit scores to between 700 and 800, authorities said.

With those numbers, Kang, an independent loan broker, said he and his conspirators were able to open bank accounts and obtain credit cards, lines of credits and loans guaranteed by the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Colluding merchants, many of them Korean, also helped Park’s group obtain cash by swiping credit cards for phantom goods and services, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman said. For what was known as a “kkang fee,” the collusive merchants charged the fraudulently obtained credit cards, although no transaction took place.

As soon as the money landed in their bank accounts, the merchants passed the money up to Park, minus the fee.

They sold the cards for $5,000 to $7,000 and then helped customers from in and around Palisades Park get driver’s licenses and other identification cards from various states.

Park’s group also used the cards to buy luxury cars, expensive merchandise and liquor, and to withdraw money from accounts with insufficient funds before anyone noticed. They also wrote checks to pay down the cards and then charged quickly them to the max.

In one case, ring members leased Lexuses or Mercedes, made one payment, then sold the cars, the FBI said.

The bills ended up going to people on the other side of the globe who had no idea what happened. The banks, in turn, took a bath — to the tune of more than $4 million in losses, Fishman said.

Park was so brazen that he 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 a 138-page federal arrest complaint.

Park pleaded guilty in January, 2012 and is still awaiting sentencing.

Dozens have also pleaded guilty in the massive case and have been sentenced or are awaiting sentencing.

Just about all of them were rousted from their beds early the morning of Sept. 16, 2010 by hundreds of federal and local investigators in Palisades Park, Tenafly, River Edge and elsewhere.

They were then brought to FBI headquarters in Newark.

Forty-two of those originally charged were directly involved in the massive fraud ring.

One of them, Kang Hyok Choi of Long Island, was already in custody, waiting trial for a triple murder in Tenafly. Detectives from the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office alerted the FBI after finding evidence of the ID theft ring on a computer they found in the house.

It was the first break in what became one of the largest identify fraud cases prosecuted in New Jersey.

One of the defendants, Yoon-Sang Kim of Allendale, was arrested in Fort Lee while driving a vehicle registered to his wife, authorities said. In the car, police found several counterfeit IDs with Kim’s photograph in other people’s names, some of which were used to open bogus bank accounts.

Authorities won’t say who tipped them off to the breadth of the operation. However, some observers told CLIFFVIEW PILOT they would put their money on Choi, who it’s believed struck a deal for leniency in exchange for inside information about the crew.

Fishman praised special agents of the FBI, IRS – Criminal Investigation, the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations, and the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office with doing the investigative work.

Handling the case for the government are Assistant U.S. Attorneys Anthony Moscato of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Organized Crime/Gangs Unit and Jane Yoon of the Healthcare and Government Fraud Unit in Newark.

Kang has been free on $250,000 since shortly after being arrested on Sept. 16, 2010.

He specifically pleaded guilty today to: conspiracy to unlawfully produce identification documents and false identification documents, conspiracy to commit wire fraud affecting financial institutions, bank fraud, aggravated identity theft, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and tax evasion.

As a result, he faces statutory maximum sentences of more than 40 years combined.

U.S. District Court Judge Katharine S. Hayden set sentencing for Jan. 6, 2014.

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