Daly City man got 18 months in prison for multimillion dollar fraud scheme

SAN FRANCISCO — A Daly City man was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison and ordered to pay more than $200,000 in restitution for his role in a multimillion dollar fraud scheme, court records show.

Mingtao Chen, 29, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson, who also ordered Chen to pay $208,162.80 to victims of the scheme. Chen was implicated in a wide-ranging scam that involved victims being duped into wiring over large sums of money.

Prosecutors estimated there are “dozens if not hundreds” of victims across the United States and that altogether the scammers brought in around $2 million.  Chen was reportedly caught using the passport to set up a bank account using a pseudonym, and authorities say victims of his scams would be duped into wiring money into that account. Prosecutors say he attempted to leave the country after learning he was under investigation.

Chen’s lawyer, Boris Bindman, wrote in a sentencing memo that Chen joined the scheme “out of a fear of a life of never-ending poverty and this fear of failing to attain financial security.” He mentioned three times in the sentencing memo that Chen left communist China to come to the United States, and pointed out that Chen pleaded guilty within six months of being charged.

“Corruption and nepotism ultimately emerged as the surest route to prosperity and power in Chinese society. Businesses and politicians used methods that owed more to the underworld than to legal practices, as the values and practices of gangsterism came to shape industry and institutions throughout all aspects of everyday life in China,” Bindman wrote.  “This is the lawless, ‘free-for-all,’ and ‘zero-sum’ world that Mr. Chen grew up in.”