A Little Neck man was arraigned in Queens Criminal Court earlier this week for allegedly running an identity theft scheme in which he used the identities of multiple people to purchase and lease cars, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced Friday.
Yong “Jason” Jeon, 47, was charged with grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen property, attempted criminal possession of stolen property, falsifying business records, scheming to defraud and identity theft on Thursday, Jan. 8.
If convicted, Jeon faces up to three and a half to seven years in prison.
Jeon began to offer his services to non-English-speaking Koreans in 2019, according to the charges. Jeon would use a clients’ personal information and forged signatures as if they were his own to lease or purchase cars from a car dealership, which would pay him a finder’s fee, Katz said.
In July 2019, Jeon used the name, birth date and social security number of a man to lease a 2019 Kia Sedona, the charges state. He was paid an additional $4,400 by the dealership from whom he bought the car, Katz said.
The Little Neck man continued the scheme through March 2020, using the same dealership for every transaction, the DA said.
Operating the scheme for less than a year, Jeon purchased or leased over 10 cars and collected nearly $60,000 in finder’s fee, according to Katz.
However, Jeon wasn’t only using other people’s information to buy clients cars, according to the charges.
Between, December 2019 and March 2020, Jeon allegedly used a man’s personal information to buy a 2019 Kia Sorento, a 2019 Kia Sedona, a second 2019 Kia Sedona and a 2020 Kia Telluride, according to the DA.
According to the charges, one of Jeon’s clients got into a car crash in January 2020. The driver told police that he was renting the car from Jeon for $1,000 a month, Katz said.
Jeon will head back to court on Feb. 2, 2021.
