Three Chinese nationals, two of them here illegally, two of whom were living in Nashua, have been sentenced for operating a gift card fraud scheme.
“These individuals were part of a Chinese transnational criminal organization that used a complex scheme to steal and launder millions of dollars through gift card theft,” Michael J. Krol, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations New England, said in a statement.
Prosecutors said the trio’s crimes were part of a bigger problem. Organized crime groups in China had acquired more than $100 million in gift cards through fraudulent means, prosecutors said. These illicit means included stealing gift card data “by hacking U.S. companies, tampering with physical gift cards, and targeting U.S. citizens through romance and elder fraud schemes,” according to the press release.
The proceeds were reportedly used to purchase high-end electronics, which were then shipped to China.
On Oct. 19, 2023, Jiang, Chen, and two other Asian males used gift card data on their cellphones to buy Apple, Bose, and Powerbeats products at a Target store in Salem, New Hampshire, totaling more than $12,356, according to a court document submitted in late March.
In January last year, law enforcement officials executed a search warrant at a warehouse used by the trio in Salem and found more than 7,000 Apple products, worth about $8 million, according to the court document.
Deportation is inevitable for the two crooks here illegally, but what caught my eye was the similarity to a case in 2018 in which two UNH researchers were arrested for laundering federal grant money into gift cards they would then use to buy …
The Indictment alleges that on 31 different occasions from approximately January 2016 to December 2017, (Hailong Zhang, 44, of Nottingham) used his business credit card to purchase personal items totaling more than $6,900 from Amazon.com, PayPal, and Apple, Inc
Hailong stole $82,000 in total.
Jichun Zhang (a different individual) stole at least $ 7,000 while at UNH, using his grant-connected Business card (similar modus operandi). Both Zhangs were found guilty and sentenced to probation and, in one case, home confinement. The monies stolen came from grants to UNH via NIH and NASA.
Personal items? High-tech personal items? We don’t know exactly what was still in their possession at the time of arrest, if anything. Both submitted fake receipts to UNH for reimbursement of “the purchases,” which UNH refunded using Federal grants tied to their respective areas of alleged study.
It’s another gift card scheme, this one at taxpayer expense, utilizing federal grant money that is laundered into gift cards or directly paid via credit card assigned to the researcher for costs.
It might be time to DOGE all UNH researchers for credit card schemes and UNH itself. It’s not like the State University System is known for its fiscal responsibility, fidelity to taxpayers’ interests, or even common sense.
Claire had some interesting observations and suggestions regarding UNH’s spending and priorities.
Professors who get paid to do nothing for three years after exposing their junk to a woman and her daughter in a grocery store parking lot.
A university administration that spends as much as $6.5 million every year for sabbaticals…
And yes, there were also sex worker conferences, funds directed to what may have been cow-fart research, (two issues Congressional Democrats somehow managed to tie together here).
And I’m sure UNH kept this guy on the UNH payroll. UNH has also used the University system to advance it’s political agenda, and that’s without even getting into the progressive pandering and vote fraud encouraged by UNH students and professors.
UNH spent $65,000.00 on the design of its current logo and $ 25 million on a new stadium a few years back. And we can never forget either the Bias Free Language guide or the 17,575.00 cafeteria table, or “preemptive microaggression sensitivity training.”
Sorry. The UNH Budget cut battle is a current issue, and taxpayer money backstops a lot of bad behavior that might not occur if there were less of it at hand, so to speak.
So, how similar is that UNH researcher scheme to the more recent arrests? UNH was still tied up with China’s Confucius Institutes at the time. China does little in the US that doesn’t involve spying, technology, or intellectual property theft, and – it appears- gift card schemes. Plain old theft – but at least it’s felony theft, which our government engages in and the proglodytes defend (it’s about democracy, you see).
Was there significantly more fraud at UNH than we were aware of? Probably.
How many “researchers” were here, stealing tech and who knows what else, before UNH was finally forced to cut ties? Are those expense accounts handy? Did UNH even care if it was just federal grant money?
And, of course, how many more illegals are in New Hampshire running gift card scams that defraud at least some Granite Staters, and are Democrats prepared to defend them too?
