DAYTON (TDB) -- A federal magistrate issued a criminal arrest warrant for James Wan Shing Kong, a former General Electric Co. program manager suspected of accessing corporate computer systems and wiring $930,000 to bank accounts in Hong Kong and Hainan Province, China. Kong is believed to have relatives in China, G.E. officials have told the U.S. Secret Service.
A previous post is on The Daily Bellwether about the federal computer hacking investigation.
An affidavit filed with the warrant says Wong engaged in identity theft and posed as a Texas dentist who was born on Oct. 10, 1974 and lived outside Houston. However, the Texas resident whose I.D. was used to carry out the scam has told U.S. Secret Service agents that personal information listed on a bogus bank account was incorrect -- except for his name and tax identification number. The G.E. funds were routed through Union Federal Bank in Indianapolis under the Texan's name and and wired to China.
"Part of the funds were sent from Union Fedeal Bank in wire transfers to various accouts. $100,00) was wired to Hang Seng Bank in Hong Kong to account #********5882 in the name of Li Chow Chin on 03/09/2006/ On 03/20/2006 $250,000 was wired to account #***********8606 at the Bank of China in the Hainan Province in the name of Du Ten Xin. On 03/28/2006 an additional $275,000 was wired to the Li Chow Chin account at the Hang Seng Bank, Hong Kong, and the last $305,000 was also wired to Li Chow Chin, account at the Hang Seng Bank, Hong Kong," the affidavit used to obtain the arrest warrant says.
Charles Matthew J. Wilkerson, the Secret Service agent who filed the affidavit, met with G.E. officials in Kettering, Ohio and was filled in about about Kong's background with the company.
"I learned that James Kong was a Program Manager who was heavily involved in the installation of new software applications. Kong was also involved in training and problem resolution issues within the company's various facilities and third party vendors. According to Kong's manager, he was hired in December 2000 and resigned unexpectedly in March 2006. Kong also claimed to have sold six of his seven houses in southern California for large sums of money immediately prior to his resignation. It was also thought that KOng had purpotedly left to work for his father in Hong Kong managing investments in China."
Wilkerson added that Kong's supervisor stated "he had access, as a system administrator, to all the information contained in various applications, including employees' logon and security codes." He said Kong made a call to a G.E.'s operations/fraud department in Costa, Mesa, Cal., ''from a phone that was tracked back to Malaysia shortly after the first account manipulations."
Federal court records show that U.S. Magistrate Sharon L. Ovington signed the arrest warrant on April 14, 2006. Kong, who also has used the name George Liu, remains at large.
No comments:
Post a Comment