Chinese national gets 12 years in $27 million scam targeting US seniors

(CN) — A Chinese national was sentenced to 12 years in prison for his role in leading a multimillion-dollar scam targeting U.S. seniors.

U.S. District Judge Robert S. Huie, a Joe Biden appointee, sentenced Zhao Wang, 41, also known as “Oscar,” to 151 months in prison for his role in overseeing a multinational fraud and money laundering scheme that scammed more than 2,000 elderly Americans of over $27 million between 2021 and 2023.

According to the government, Wang led a conspiracy that operated a series of technical support, bank impersonation, government impersonation and refund scams to extract money from unsuspecting victims.

Members of the scheme would use phone calls, emails and ads to get in contact with potential victims, directing them to call a specific phone number that belonged to an India-based call center to orchestrate their scam, according to prosecutors. They also used remote desktop software to access the victims’ computers.

Prosecutors say the conspiracy’s most frequent scam was a refund scam, where victims were told they were entitled to a small refund for a specific charge, then told they were “over-refunded” and instructed to send the over-refunded money back via wire transfers or cash through the mail to locations in Southern California and Nevada.

In reality, the refunds were fake, and victims received false names and addresses to send their packages to. Wang and his co-conspirators then used fake IDs matching the false identities to pick up the packages. Individuals who picked up the packages would send photos and videos showing them counting the money to Wang, with each package containing an average of $14,000.

Wang and his U.S. conspirators took upwards of 18% of the money they stole, transferring the rest via cryptocurrency to their India-based broker.

“This sentence recognizes the profound human cost of exploiting trust and treating vulnerable people as opportunities for profit,” U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon said in a press release.

Wang was arrested in 2024 and charged with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and conspiracy to launder monetary instruments alongside four co-defendants who were also part of the scheme. He initially pleaded not guilty before reversing course and pleading guilty in January 2026.

According to the government, as part of his plea agreement, Wang admitted he obtained the fake IDs and “coordinated and oversaw criminal activities and recruited individuals, including his co-defendants, to work on his behalf." Wang was the first of the five co-defendants to plead guilty and cooperate with the government throughout the process, his attorneys wrote in a sentencing memorandum.

The government sought close to 20 years for Wang due to his prominent role in the scheme. At sentencing Friday, the government said it emphasized Wang was “explicit” that the conspiracy was aimed at extracting money from U.S. seniors, citing a phone conversation from February 2022 in which Wang said: “It’s basically a scam targeting elderly Americans. Trick you into believing you need to send me a package. It’s packed with cash [sinister grin].”

Wang, a first-time offender, asked the court for a sentence that was not greater than necessary, citing his cooperation, certain deportation once his sentence is completed, and his family, including a wife and 2-year-old son.

In Wang’s sentencing memorandum, his attorney Yuan Li of Demidchik Law Firm argued the government’s characterization of Wang’s role as the organizer and leader of the scheme was a “dramatic overstatement,” claiming the conspiracy was “designed, directed and controlled by India-based syndicates.”

Li said the Indian scam centers and brokers were the ones designing the scam, operating the call centers, making contact with victims and receiving nearly 80% of the money made in the scheme. She further argued that Wang’s group did not know the full scope of the conspiracy, characterizing Wang as an “independent contractor performing a discrete logistical task, not that of a leader directing a transnational enterprise.”

At the sentencing hearing, Huie called the scope of the fraud “staggering” and Wang’s domestic operation of the scheme “100% reprehensible,” according to the government.

The judge further emphasized Wang’s purposeful targeting of elderly citizens, saying, “Their vulnerability was not incidental. It was not a coincidence. It was how they were selected. It was how they came to be scammed.”

A representative for Wang did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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