Fort Lee Man Pleads Guilty in Connection With Large-Scale Identity Theft Ring

A Fort Lee man faces up to 20 years behind bars after pleading guilty Friday to a variety of charges in connection with his participation in a large-scale identity theft ring, federal authorities said.

Hyo-Il “Daniel” Song, 49, of Fort Lee, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Newark to illegally producing identification documents, aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced Friday.

Song joined three other defendants who pleaded guilty earlier in the week to similar charges in the same case: Son-Hee Chong, 56, of Palisades Park, Myung-Kyun Ko, 51, of Leonia and Alex S. Lee, 44, of Palisades Park.

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

In January Park confessed to a federal judge in Newark that he ran a 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 beginning with the prefix 586, which were issued to people usually from China and working in U.S. territories like American Samoa, Guam and Saipan, from various brokers and sold those numbers to their mostly Korean “customers,” according to authorities.

Authorities said 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 such counterfeit documents.

Between July 2007 and March 2009, Song traveled to Illinois, Tennessee and Pennsylvania using four different Social Security cards beginning with the 586 prefix, using them 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 acted as a “collusive merchant” for Park’s ring, also using the identities to establish merchant bank accounts in the names of two “fictitious” companies—153 Samsung DC, Inc. and 90 You and Me—that “neither sold goods nor provided services,” authorities said.

Song faces a maximum prison term of 20 years and up to a $250,000 fine on the conspiracy count. He is currently being detained while he awaits sentencing, which is scheduled for May 23, according to the United States Attorney's Office.