The Frustrations of the Kam Wong Sentencing

Labeling generations has never worked for me. According to some faceless group, who I assume are located in a basement in St. Louis, Mo., eating their lunches out of vending machines, they have decided that I should be included in Generation X – those people born between 1965 and 1979.

My body believes I’m a baby boomer, but my brain says I am Generation Y. I’m very conscious of the groans I make when getting up off of the couch, while also thinking about how the Delta mobile app is so much better than United or American Airlines when it comes to usability and experience.

I fully understand how late in the day I can drink coffee without disrupting my sleep. Also, I use Bitmojis constantly. I listen to the “Pure Jazz” streaming radio station while writing my columns. Also, I think Miley Cyrus really didn’t do us any favors by releasing her new six-track album. We all know Britney Spears did roughly the same album with “In The Zone.” I don’t want Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper to get together. I do want to watch “Rizzoli & Isles” while falling asleep.

I have an open mind and I like to watch those who’ve had too much to drink stagger through downtown while I old-man-judgingly sip coffee from my Contigo saying, “Ugh, good luck future you – you’re going to feel lousy tomorrow.”

So, I feel multi-generational. And that leads me to this exclamation I overheard at the airport: Today, I am baby boomer angry!

I’m angry about Kam Wong, 63, a baby boomer, former CEO of Municipal Credit Union and federal prison inmate. Earlier this month, Wong was sentenced to five and a half years in federal prison for embezzling $10 million.

Even on the low end of the sentencing guidelines, this Class B felony can include a fine of up to $15,000 and between five and 20 years in prison, or both. Even though prosecutors argued for a sentence between eight and 11 years in prison, the judge went lower. Why? We are not sure. The judge did order Wong to not only serve the five and a half years, but also, as we reported, ordered Wong to pay “$9.89 million in restitution and a forfeiture order of the same amount.”

Even the judge commented in court that he believed it was unlikely Wong would ever be able to pay off the millions of dollars.

I was a criminal reporter years ago, and I understand that deals between lawyers are made and judges sometimes weigh in on those backdoor deals. But this sentence feels different and wholeheartedly unjust, especially when you consider the damage done to the credit union and its employees during his admitted embezzlement between 2013 through January 2018.

CU Times has reported on Wong and this credit union for years. In September of 2016, Peter Strozniak wrote a compelling feature story about Mr. Wong’s first-hand experience inside the credit union the day terrorists attacked New York City. Wong spoke fondly about his time at the credit union he’d worked at since the 1980s. Reflecting on the Great Recession, he told Strozniak, “We told the public that MCU is still strong, trusted and growing despite all of the other banks that were having problems. I think we were very successful in getting that across to the public and we experienced all of that growth.”

I look back on these older stories with Wong and wonder about a lot of things: Was he just blowing smoke, knowing that he was literally stealing millions of dollars during the time of that interview? Had Wong just been, as his attorney described in court, taking his “daily cocktail of opiates,” and “popping hydrocodone pills while swigging from a codeine-laced bottle of syrup at his desk” before the interview? While on the phone with Strozniak, was Wong going through his stack of lottery tickets looking for winning numbers? He admittedly was spending $60,000 each month on lottery tickets.

Wong’s attorney blamed 9/11, the Great Recession, long hours at work and “decades of incredible stress” as some of the reasons Wong went on his multi-year embezzlement and drug-use extravaganza.

He will serve a sentence of only five and a half years.

MCU was conserved by New York regulators in mid-May of this year. And since then, it’s been reported that the remaining employees working at the credit union have taken a 35% pay cut while the government tries to sort through the mess made by Wong. Loyal employees who, for what I can guess is just to hang onto a job while they try to find another one, have been directly torpedoed by Wong’s grotesque use of his CEO position. A significant pay cut and possibly out of a job. And Wong goes to prison for five and a half years while the judge knows it’s not likely Wong will ever pay the money back. There were numerous MCU employees who attended Wong’s sentencing hearing, but we never heard from them in court. I would have liked to have them asked by the judge, the prosecutors and the defense attorney what Wong’s sentence should be. If I’d been in their shoes, I would have asked for the maximum sentence allowed. Would you?

Back to that 2016 interview with Wong as he recalled his actions during those devastating days on and after 9/11: He said he learned so much from that experience and about the internal operations of the credit union during the crisis. Because of his actions, he was promoted from CFO to president “for his leadership during the crisis.”

Wong finished the interview by stating, “If I had the choice of doing it all over again, I would trade my promotion for the disaster.”

On behalf of myself, the credit union world and your former employees, I wish you had traded in your promotion, disaster or not.

Keep in mind, Wong’s embezzlements added up to $10 million. There’s another embezzlement case we’re watching that could add up to more than $40 million. Oof!

Personal note: Finally, I just want to say, “Goodbye Nana, I love you.” She was 95. According to my reference chart, she was part of the G.I. Generation. To me, she was a lovely grandma who enjoyed watching Jimmy Connors play tennis while sipping on a cocktail.

Michael Ogden is editor-in-chief for CU Times. He can be reached at mogden@cutimes.com.