Tuong Quoc Ho, 32, Carmel, Ind., was indicted by a federal grand jury for an elaborate scheme to defraud businesses, consumers, suppliers, financial institutions, credit card holders, credit card companies, and identity theft victims for personal monetary gain. The indictment contains 28 federal offenses including wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, credit card fraud, money laundering, and other federal offenses.
“Fraud cannot and will not be tolerated at any cost, especially when it involves identity theft,” said Minkler. “This can devastate people’s credit, which often times takes them years to repair. This office is committed to prosecuting such crimes to the fullest extent of the law. Today Mr. Ho’s streak of fraud and identity theft comes to an end.”
According to court documents, Ho and others overseas allegedly obtained personal information from the internet of hundreds of persons located throughout the United States and worldwide. He then allegedly used this information to fraudulently open PayPal and eBay accounts. He would then link his personal bank accounts to these PayPal accounts to receive and transfer money. There were over 500 PayPal accounts linked to Ho’s personal bank accounts.
The indictment further alleges that Ho and others used the eBay accounts to advertise and sell a variety of items that were purchased with stolen credit card information from thousands of individuals.
The indictment further alleges that Ho used the personal information he obtained of others to generate and submit to PayPal fraudulent documents in the names of those other persons, including identification documents (driver’s licenses, passports, social security cards), proof of address documents (utility bills, bank statements), and proof of sales documents (invoices, receipts). This was intended to mislead PayPal about the identity of the person who opened and maintain the accounts, as well as the true source of the items being sold on eBay.
Finally, the indictment alleges that proceeds from eBay sales totaling over $2 million, flowed through to the PayPal accounts. Ho then wired money to family and friends in Vietnam, and used the money for personal expenses, including the purchase of his home in Carmel.
