BAYSIDE — A Bayside man pleaded guilty in an identity theft scheme in which he worked alongside the leader of a Newark organized crime enterprise, the U.S. attorney for New Jersey said.
According to U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman, 38-year-old Young-Woo Ji, of Bayside, pleaded guilty Monday before U.S. District Judge Katharine Hayden to charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud affecting financial institutions, bank fraud, aggravated identity theft and false claims.
The U.S. attorney’s office said Ji worked with New Jersey’s Sang-Hyun Park to defraud banks, credit card companies and other lenders, using a Social Security card with the prefix “586” to fraudulently obtain driver’s licenses.
He was arrested Sept. 16, Fishman said.
According to Fishman, Ji admitted that he used the “586” identities and fraudulent W-2 forms to claim hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax refunds from the Internal Revenue Service. He will be sentenced May 15 and could face up to 34 years in prison, the U.S. attorney said.
According to the criminal complaint, Park acted as the group’s leader based out of Bergen County, N.J., and helped obtain, broker and sell identity documents to customers with the intentions of committing credit card fraud, bank fraud, tax fraud and other crimes.
Park pleaded guilty to the charges last month.
