A Brooklyn man pleaded guilty to one Count of Criminal Possession of a Forged Instrument and one Count of Identity Theft, both felonies, in Albany County Court. Saihing Chan, 21, faces up to 4-12 years in state prison when sentenced on March 3.
On August 5, 2013 Bethlehem Police, United States Secret Service, United States Department of Homeland Security, New York State Police, and other local law enforcement agencies executed a search warrant pursuant to an identity theft investigation at the Golden Town Buffet on Route 9W in the Town of Bethlehem.
http://liarcatchers.com/identity_theft_investigation.html
During the execution of the warrant, the authorities arrested Heng Li, then 27, of Brooklyn, for using a credit card skimmer device to obtain personal identification information of 39 credit card numbers by fraudulent pretenses. LI also was in possession of a forged Michigan driver’s license and under an active deportation order at the time of the search warrant execution, as were three other employees that were present at the restaurant at that time.
The investigation led the authorities to other individuals involved in this identity theft scheme, including Chan, who with others, used stolen credit card numbers and identities to purchase thousands of dollars’ worth of merchandise.
On December 11, 2013, Li was sentenced to 2 1/3 to 7 years in State Prison after pleading guilty to (1) Count of Criminal Possession of a Forged Instrument in the Second Degree, a Class D Felony, and (1) Count of Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree, a Class E Felony, before the Honorable Stephen Herrick in Albany County Court.
Another employee of the buffet, Pheng Sathongoth, then 42, of Manhattan, New was sentenced to 2 1/3 to 7 years in State Prison and ordered to pay $4,549.64 in restitution.
A final case against co-defendant Bao Liu remains open and pending at this time.
