{"id":409163,"date":"2024-05-08T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-08T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=409163"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"KAL-Guam-office-manager-sentenced-to-41-months-imprisonment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/KAL-Guam-office-manager-sentenced-to-41-months-imprisonment\/","title":{"rendered":"KAL Guam office manager sentenced to 41 months\u2019 imprisonment"},"content":{"rendered":"

HAGATNA, Guam\u2014<\/strong>Shawn N. Anderson, United States Attorney for the Districts of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, announced that defendant Sung Peel Hwang a.k.a. Don Sung Peel Hwang, age 39, from the Republic of Korea and naturalized citizen of the United States, was sentenced to serve 41 months\u2019 imprisonment. He was charged with bank fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. \u00a7 1344(1) and money laundering, in violation of 18 U.S.C. \u00a7 1957. The court also ordered five years of supervised release, restitution of $615, 271.51 and a mandatory $200 special assessment fee.<\/p>\n

Beginning in September 2015 and continuing until December of 2018, Hwang engaged in a scheme to defraud his employer and to embezzle over $600,000. Hwang was an administrator in the Korean Air Lines Guam office at the Guam International Airport. KAL operated commercial passenger flights between Guam and South Korea. All airlines operating out of GIAA are required to report the number of passengers on their flights and to pay a corresponding Passenger Facility Charge to GIAA. As an administrator at the Guam KAL office, Hwang\u2019s duties included reporting the number of passengers and paying the corresponding PFC, procuring, and paying for other office supplies and services, and acting as one of two co-signatories on KAL Guam\u2019s business checking account at the Bank of Guam. As one part of his scheme, Hwang underreported the PFC owed to GIAA and kept the difference between the actual PFC owed and the PFC paid for himself. Over the course of the three-year scheme Hwang deposited over $3.5 million in KAL funds into his personal bank account and diverted over $600,000 in KAL funds to his own personal use.<\/p>\n

\u201cHwang cheated his employer and GIAA out of a substantial sum of money,\u201d stated Anderson. \u201cFortunately, GIAA\u2019s auditing procedures eventually revealed this scheme. The sentence imposed by the court is a strong message of accountability and deterrence. I applaud our federal law enforcement partners for their hard work in bringing Hwang to justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe FBI is focused on addressing financial crimes that have an impact on our communities,\u201d said FBI special agent in charge Steven Merrill. \u201cThis sentence should give pause to others who consider engaging in similar criminal conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Hwang\u2019s greed may have netted him a temporary windfall, but at great cost to those he stole from and to the detriment of his community,\u201d said IRS-CI special agent in charge Adam Jobes.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s sentencing shows that CI is committed to fighting financial crime, and making sure that fraudsters pay the just cost for those crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The investigation was conducted by the FBI Guam Resident Agency and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division. This case was prosecuted by Benjamin K. Petersburg, assistant United States attorney, District of Guam. (PR)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Shawn N. Anderson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HAGATNA, Guam\u2014Shawn N. Anderson, United States Attorney for the Districts of Guam and the Northern…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-409163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409163\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}