Man Sentenced in ID Theft Scheme

Photo by Flickr/absolutely_loverly/2569915437/ Oh used altered passports to steal the identities of his victims

ALEXANDRIA, VA. -  Jungwook Oh, 48, of Manassas, Va., was sentenced today to 75 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for using the identities of several people to steal nearly $750,000.  Oh, a naturalized citizen originally from South Korea, pled guilty on Sept. 14, 2009, to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and aggravated identity theft.  

From approximately November 2007 through June 2009, Oh engaged in an elaborate, multi-step identity theft and credit card fraud scheme in Virginia, New York, and Illinois. As part of the scheme, Oh fraudulently obtained driver’s licenses and identification cards from the Illinois DMV using photo-substituted Chinese passports and genuine U.S. Social Security cards obtained from foreign workers in the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

The fraudulently obtained driver’s licenses and identification cards contained Oh’s photograph but the name, date of birth, and personal identifying information of other individuals known by Oh to be real people.

Oh then would use the fraudulently obtained identities to open multiple credit card and bank accounts and lines of credit, attaching the fraudulent identities to existing accounts as authorized users. Oh would obtain hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans and credit from the fraudulent accounts with no intent of repayment.  Oh also created shell companies, through which he funneled money and used to establish false employment and income information to potential lenders.

When arrested on June 30, 2009, Oh possessed more than 100 credit and debit cards in the names of more than 30 different people, five Social Security cards in names other than his own, and four Illinois state-issued ID cards with Oh’s photo but using someone else’s personal identifying information.     

This case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Diplomatic Security Service of the U.S. Department of State, and the U.S. Secret Service.  

Assistant United States Attorney Inayat Delawala and former Special Assistant United States Attorney Matthew Greiner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission prosecuted the case on behalf of the United States. Neil H. MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Daniel S. Cortez, Postal Inspector in Charge, U.S. Postal Inspection Service; Jeffrey Irvine, Special Agent-in-Charge of the United States Secret Service’s Washington Field Office; and Todd Brown, Special Agent in Charge of the Diplomatic Security Service’s Washington Field Office, made the announcement after sentencing by United States District Judge Claude M. Hilton.