Feds Go After Former CU CEO's Assets in Multimillion-Dollar Embezzlement Case
According to court documents, Kam Wong holds 24 big bank accounts, and owns seven luxury cars and a Brooklyn apartment.
In three years, Kam Wong made $11.1 million and according to newly-released court documents, the long-time executive for one of New York’s largest credit unions, managed most of that money with big banks.
Wong pleaded guilty in November to embezzling nearly $10 million from the $2.8 billion Municipal Credit Union where he was president/CEO from 2007 to June 2018. He joined MCU in 1981 and became its CFO 1988.
Prosecutors filed forfeiture documents in U.S. District Court in Manhattan last week that will allow the federal government to take possession of Wong’s assets to help pay the $9,890,375 he is expected to be ordered to make in restitution during his sentencing hearing in April.
Court documents show the former credit union CEO has 24 accounts with JP Morgan Chase, Citibank, Bank of America, Wells Fargo Advisors, HSBC, and Sterling National Bank.
Wong has two accounts at MCU and an Ascensus 401(k) account with the credit union.
The amounts in each account were not disclosed in court documents.
Presumably, Wong had so many accounts with the big banks because from 2014 to 2016 he received $11,169,457 in W-2 compensation, which included his base salary, bonus and incentive pay and other reportable compensation, according to MCU’s 990 filings with the IRS.
Wong also received more than $114,000 in non-taxable benefits and more than $281,000 in retirement and deferred compensation, the credit union’s 990 IRS filings show.
According to forfeiture documents, Wong enjoyed luxury cars including a 2018 convertible Ferrari, a 2015 Mercedes Benz suburban, a 2015 Tesla Motors four-door sedan, a 2015 Mercedes Benz four-door sedan, a 2017 Volvo suburban and 2012 and 2013 Land Rover Range Rover suburbans.
The feds are also going after his house on Long Island’s Valley Stream valued at more than $500,000, according to New York’s multiple listings service, and an apartment in Brooklyn’s Homecrest neighborhood, near Coney Island, where the average apartment sale price is more than $400,000, according to StreetEasy, a New York City real estate website.
The former CEO stole from MCU by submitting sham invoices for dental work never performed on him or paid by him and millions of dollars in payments made by the credit union in lieu of purported long-term disability insurance, and for taxes owed on these and other employment benefits, according to court documents.
He also received cash advances he was not entitled to, payments for his leave days that did not comply with and exceeded what was provided for under his employment contract, prosecutors said.
In January 2018, after Wong learned about the federal investigation, he allegedly made false statements to investigators and created false documents to explain and justify some of the phony payments.
The federal investigation also revealed Wong deposited the funds from his schemes into an MCU account. He then withdrew approximately $1.9 million via ATMs over the course of more than 2,500 transactions – an average of more than one and a half transactions per day from July 2013 and January 2018.
Wong also bought $3.5 million in New York lottery tickets, and borrowed money from two individuals to buy even more lottery tickets, according to the criminal investigation.
Wong is scheduled to be sentenced on April 5 and could receive the maximum of 30 years in federal prison.