The president of an Ontario equipment firm, who defrauded a Pasadena bank out of $9.6 million, was sentenced Wednesday to more than five years in federal prison and ordered to forfeit his elderly parents’ home.
Chung Yu “Louis” Yeung, 39, was sentenced to serve five years of supervised release following his 63 months behind bars and ordered pay back the millions he stole from East West Bank.
His parents’ house in the San Gabriel Valley was subject to forfeiture, but Yeung was allowed to retain a second home for his wife and children, according to U.S. District Judge Christina A. Snyder.
The judge said the San Dimas man had “caused great unhappiness” to his parents.
“Some bell should’ve gone off in his mind,” Snyder said.
Yeung expressed some remorse during the nearly hour-long sentencing hearing in downtown Los Angeles.
“In Asian culture, sons take care of the parents when they get old,” the defendant told the court. “Obviously, I can’t do that. I know what I did was wrong.”
Yeung pleaded guilty in March to one federal count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and four counts of bank fraud.
The chief executive of Eastern Tools and Equipment, which sold portable generators and other equipment, Yeung admitted defrauding East West by inflating the amount of business done by the company so it could obtain a large loan.
As part of the five-year scheme, Yeung and others set up about 20 shell companies with bogus business name statements, post office boxes, bank accounts and telephone numbers to give the appearance that the company was conducting a lot more business than it actually was.
Eastern Tools defaulted on the promissory note after East West discovered the fraud, causing $9.6 million in losses to the bank, prosecutors said.
“This is a highly sophisticated fraud,” Snyder remarked.
Eastern Tool’s former vice president, Guo Xiang “David” Fan, was also indicted in the case but is believed to have fled to China.
Yeung was ordered to self-surrender on Dec. 19 to begin his sentence.
–City News Service