Feng Dong was charged in Chicago with one count of conspiring to possess with intent to use and transfer unlawfully five or more Social Security cards from approximately late 2007 through approximately Dec. 15, 2010.
Ya Jing Pei was charged with possession with intent to unlawfully transfer five or more SS cards, and one count of transfer, posses and use, without lawful authority, a means of identification of another person using an SS number on Jan. 18, 2011.
Through their court-appointed defense attorneys Joseph James Norita Camacho and F. Matthew Smith, the defendants waived the required 21-day time period for a preliminary hearing and also waived the time period for the identity hearing.
On April 1, designated federal Judge David Wiseman unsealed the case on the motion of Assistant U.S. Attorney Kirk Schuler.
The defendants have been released on a $25,000 unsecured bond.
“Upon the return of [People’s Republic of China] nationals to the PRC or just prior to their departure from Saipan, their issued Social Security account cards and associated identity information were often collected by various criminal enterprises and trafficked into the continental U.S. for use in various fraudulent document/identity fraud schemes,” according to an affidavit from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Feng Dong told FBI that Ya Jing Pei was paying other former garment factory workers approximately $100 each for their SS cards.
Feng Dong said he had mailed a total of approximately 300 SS cards to Ya Jing Pei’s friend in the U.S.
Between Jan. 7 and 25, 2011, the FBI conducted controlled purchase of six SS cards from Ya Jing Pei who was audio recorded telling the cooperating defendant that the “fee” was $600 per SS card.
