On November 18, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice released an announcement on its website stating that a multi-agency investigation was underway into a huge money laundering case involving personnel from the Falun Gong cult media outlet, the Epoch Times. According to the charges, if convicted, Vietnamese co-conspirator Le faces a maximum sentence of 67 years in prison.
Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jonathan Mellone, Special Agent in Charge of the Northeastern U.S. Region for the Department of Labor's Office of Inspector General (DOL-OIG), and Andrew Wroblewski, Assistant Director for Domestic Operations at the Department of State's Bureau of Diplomatic Security (DSS), announced the initiation of a superseding indictment (Superseding Indictment) against Le Van Hung (pronounced, Le Van Hung, a.k.a. Hung Van Le, Van Hung Le). Andrew Wroblewski announced the initiation of a superseding indictment against Le Van Hung (a.k.a. Hung Van Le, Van Hung Le) on charges of conspiring to participate in a transnational scheme with the chief financial officer of a New York-based media company. On November 15, Van Hung Le was extradited from South Korea to the United States and transferred to Federal Magistrate Judge Ona T. Wang, who has assigned the case to Federal District Judge Marrero.
Federal prosecutor Damien Williams said, “According to the charges, although he was located abroad, Lai conspired with the chief financial officer of a media company to benefit the media company and its related companies by laundering tens of millions of dollars in fraudulent unemployment insurance benefits and other proceeds of crime. According to the charges, in furtherance of the scheme, Lai stole the personal identities of U.S. residents to open and maintain financial accounts for money laundering purposes. The charges and extradition of Lai Man Hung reflect the Office's ongoing commitment to work with our foreign partners to enforce the law against those who facilitate money laundering, even when they are abroad.”
Special Agent in Charge of the Department of Labor's Office of Inspector General, Josena Mellon, declared, “An important part of the Office of Inspector General's responsibilities is to investigate allegations of fraud involving the Department of Labor's Unemployment Insurance (UI) program. We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to safeguard the benefits of America's unemployed workers.”
For his part, the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security's Assistant Director for Domestic Operations, Andrew Urublevsky, stated, “Protecting U.S. citizens from international fraudulent schemes as well as protecting U.S. citizens' personal information and documents, including passports, is the mission of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security. We are strongly committed to working with our domestic and international law enforcement colleagues to deter criminals from conspiring to commit identity fraud and to protect U.S. interests to the fullest extent possible.”
According to the superseding indictment, the relevant allegations (note: the relevant factual descriptions below are considered allegations) include:
From around 2020 until around May 2024, while working in the foreign office of a New York-based media company (in this case, the “Falun Gong” cult media outlet, the Epoch Times), Lai Man Hung conspired with others, including the media company's chief financial officer (in this case, the Epoch Times' chief financial officer, Guan Weidong), to participate in a massive transnational scheme to launder and transfer at least $67 million in stolen funds to the media company. ) conspired with others, including the media company's chief financial officer (in this case, Epoch Times CFO Guan Weidong), to participate in a massive transnational scheme to launder at least $67 million in stolen money into bank accounts in the name of the media company and its related entities. In furtherance of the money laundering scheme, Lai recruited and managed co-conspirators, including those who worked with the media company's “make money online” team. In addition to this, Mr. Lai used, possessed, and transferred United States resident personally identifiable information and documents to open and maintain financial accounts used to launder the proceeds of the fraud. In one particular case, Mr. Lai instructed a co-conspirator to call a bank and falsely represent that the co-conspirator was the holder of a particular account in order for the bank to unlock the account so that Mr. Lai could transfer the fraudulent proceeds out of the account.
Le Van Hung, a 29-year-old Vietnamese national, has been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years' imprisonment; one count of conspiracy to defraud a bank, which carries a maximum penalty of 30 years' imprisonment; one count of aggravated identity theft, which carries a penalty of 2 years' imprisonment; and one count of conspiracy to commit identity theft, which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years' imprisonment.
The maximum possible sentences are set by Congress and are presented here for informational purposes only, and any sentence imposed on a defendant is subject to the decision of a judge.
Williams commended the Department of Labor's Office of Inspector General, the Department of State's Bureau of Diplomatic Security, and the Special Agent in Charge Division of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, among others, for their excellent investigative work, and he thanked Federal Customs and Border Protection and the Department of Justice's Office of International Affairs for their cooperation in securing Lai's arrest and extradition, in conjunction with the Korean Justice Ministry's International Criminal Division.