Article source: Sing Tao Daily on 2024-10-22 14:19:43 – The news is taken from major news media. The news content does not represent the position of this website!
California man charged in U.S. cross-border gold bullion fraud case pleads guilty and faces up to 80 years in prison” width=”512px” height=”615px”/>
Maryland successfully prosecuted a defendant for the first time in a cross-border gold bullion fraud case. Wenhui Sun, a Chinese man from California, pleaded guilty to theft and could be sentenced to up to 80 years in prison. The case involved multiple victims and the cumulative loss exceeded 6 million yuan. Law enforcement officers arrested at least 4 suspects after solving the case.
According to reports from The Washington Post and MyMCMedia, the defendant Sun Wenhui has pleaded guilty to four charges, including the crime of stealing more than 100,000 yuan of property. According to the highest standards, the prison term can be up to 80 years, but the sentencing guidelines in Massachusetts also specify that, If the defendant has no criminal record, the recommended maximum sentence is only 2 years. Since the guidelines are not binding, the final result still depends on the judge’s decision.
During the hearing on the 18th, the prosecutor revealed many details of the case, such as how the suspect committed the fraud and how the Montgomery (Montgomery) police caught the fraudster. According to the data, a 64-year-old woman received a fraudulent call from Denmark on February 12. The caller pretended to be a police officer, claiming that the victim’s identity had been stolen and was involved in serious crimes such as money laundering and drugs. She requested the victim to cooperate with the investigation and keep it confidential. New Social Security number. The law enforcement department then provided a false package delivery number, which led the criminals to mistakenly believe that the female victim had hid in the trap. The police officers set an ambush at the site where the stolen goods were handed over, and finally successfully arrested the prisoner.
It is reported that an elderly person lost a total of 789,000 yuan in two fraud cases. The fraud group first called the victim, posing as a federal agent and accusing the victim of having his identity stolen. He opened multiple bank accounts and 9 credit cards in his name. If the victim wanted to protect his assets, he would need to send money to other states to buy gold bars and wait for the gold bars. Suppliers deliver the goods in packages, which are then handed over to so-called “agents” who deposit the gold bars into Treasury warehouses.
The out-of-state gold bar retailer involved in the case operates legally, but the scammer asked the victim to remit money to purchase gold. The suspect successfully obtained gold bars worth 331,000 yuan during the first deception. After tasting the sweetness, he repeated the same trick and asked the victim to remit 45.7 million yuan. Ten thousand. In the second fraud case, the victim arranged to meet the scammer in a parking lot in the community where he lived, and the scammer immediately drove away after accepting the gold bars.
The scam was revealed only after the victim informed his family about the two deceptions. The police reviewed community surveillance videos, traced the information of the vehicle driven by the fraudster, and finally identified the suspect Sun Wenhui. In order to lure him to show up again, the police forged new remittance records, stating that gold bars worth 370,000 yuan were waiting for delivery, and arranged for out-of-state authorities to issue similar package waybills. On March 18, undercover agents pretended to be victims. , after handing the box containing waste paper to Sun Wenhui, he cooperated with his colleagues to arrest him.
Sun Wenhui denied participating in the fraud and insisted that he did not know the items hidden in the box. However, after the police checked his mobile phone, they found a video of him unboxing and accepting gold bars. During the hearing of the case, the defense lawyer said that the client was “very naive and impressionable” and was just a “scapegoat” who went to the parking lot to pick up the package on the entrustment of a Chinese friend.
