The trio capitalized on the money from the scheme to buy and ship Apple products to China.
Three Chinese nationals who were part of a Chinese transnational criminal organization have been sentenced for their involvement in a gift card fraud scheme, with the illicit money being used to buy expensive electronic products, which were then shipped to China.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Hampshire announced the sentences in a press release on April 22. Naxin Wu, 26, an unlawful resident in Nashua, was sentenced to 33 months in prison; Mengying Jiang, 34, a Nashua resident, was sentenced to 60 months in jail; and Mingdong Chen, 28, an unlawful resident in Brooklyn, New York, was sentenced to 24 months in prison.
The three individuals, who have also been sentenced to one year of supervised release, face deportation upon completing their prison sentences.
“These individuals were part of a Chinese transnational criminal organization that used a complex scheme to steal and launder millions of dollars through gift card theft,” Michael J. Krol, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations New England, said in a statement.
Prosecutors said the trio’s crimes were part of a bigger problem. Organized crime groups in China had acquired more than $100 million in gift cards through fraudulent means, prosecutors said. These illicit means included stealing gift card data “by hacking U.S. companies, tampering with physical gift cards, and targeting U.S. citizens through romance and elder fraud schemes,” according to the press release.
The China-based criminal groups then sent the data from the gift cards to Chinese nationals operating cells in the United States via a China-based messaging platform in exchange for cryptocurrency, prosecutors said.
These cells would then use the gift card data to buy high-value electronics, particularly Apple products, prosecutors said, and ship them to China, Hong Kong, or Southeast Asian countries. Prosecutors noted that cell members typically run their operations in states with no sales tax, such as New Hampshire, to maximize their profits.
By Frank Fang
