Fort Lee Man Gets Five Years in Prison For Role in Identity Theft Ring

A Fort Lee man was sentenced to more than five years in prison Thursday in connection with his role in a large-scale scheme, federal authorities said.

Hyo-Il “Daniel” Song, 49, of Fort Lee, was sentenced in federal court in Newark to 65 months in jail with three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $1.08 million in restitution, according to U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman.

Song in February to illegally producing identification documents, aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to commit wire fraud before U.S. District Judge Katharine Hayden, who sentenced Song and one other man, Hyun-Yop “James” Sung, 43, of Carlstadt, Thursday, authorities said.

Song was arrested in September 2010, along with dozens of others, including Sang-Hyun “Jimmy” Park, 45, of Palisades Park, in connection with what authorities called a “widespread, sophisticated identity theft and fraud enterprise.”

Park, who is awaiting sentencing, pleaded guilty in January to charges related to running the multi-million dollar identity theft and bank fraud ring, selling social security cards to clients to obtain fraudulent bank loans, credit cards and for other purposes.

Members of Park’s ring obtained social security cards, most of which began with the prefix ‘586’ and had been issued to people from China working in U.S. territories like American Samoa, Guam and Saipan, from brokers and sold those numbers to their mostly Korean “customers,” according to authorities.

Park’s group also used the social security numbers to obtain actual driver’s licenses and other forms of identification from various states or to manufacture counterfeit documents, authorities said.

Between July 2007 and March 2009, Song traveled to Illinois, Tennessee and Pennsylvania using four different Social Security cards beginning with the ‘586’ prefix to obtain driver’s licenses and identification cards in different names, which he then used to apply for credit cards and open bank accounts, according to authorities.

Song then used the fraudulent identities to establish merchant bank accounts in the names of two “fictional institutions,” 153 Samsung DC, Inc. and 90 You and Me, authorities said.

Once he established those accounts, Song obtained credit card machines, charged fake cards on them, had the funds wired to his fraudulent merchant accounts, withdrew the cash and shared it with Park and other members of the ring, according to authorities.

All told, Song’s activities resulted in more than $1 million in losses to banks, credit card companies and others, authorities said.

Song had faced a maximum prison term of 20 years and up to a $250,000 fine on the conspiracy count, according to the United States Attorney's Office.