eAdGear owners sentenced to 46 months in prison

Last December Charles Wang and Francis Yuen, collectively the owners of the eAdGear Ponzi scheme, were indicted for structuring fraud.

This was followed up with a guilty plea back in August, with Wang and Yuen each sentenced to 46 months in prison on the 19th of October.

The sentence is at the ‘low end of the advisory Guidelines range‘, with a filed Sentencing Memorandum claiming Wang is ‘in his fifties and he has no criminal record‘.

Charles Wang is 53 years old. He was born in China but naturalized and became a United States citizen in 1998.

His mother and siblings live in China but he has two young adult daughters who live on the East Coast.

He worked hard his entire life to educate his daughters and to give them a better life.

His eldest daughter is 24 years old and works as an art director, and his youngest daughter, who is 22 years old, works as a tattoo artist.

Mr. Wang worked in shipping and exports for many years before he became an executive in 2011 for eAdGear.

His expertise is in shipping and he hopes to continue in this field after he completes his federal sentence.

The last few years have been a very stressful time for Mr. Wang and his family. His assets have been frozen and he has not been able to work.

His wife has been in China to support her family there, and so he has been alone in the United States with his two daughters.

Importantly, he has a strong relationship with both of them.

Mr. Wang understands that his conduct in his case while working for eAdGear was unlawful and that he must serve a lengthy custodial sentence for his crimes.

Pursuant to a plea agreement with the government, Mr. Wang pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit structuring and to a substantive structuring count.

His plea agreement provides for a recommended sentence of 46 months, which is the low end of the advisory sentencing range.

Francis Yuen’s Sentencing Memorandum doesn’t clarify whether or not he has a criminal history, with it instead relying on his family’s medical problems to garner sympathy.

Mr. Yuen is fifty-five years old. He is married, and the father of a son he describes as a “magical baby” because of repeated miscarriages by his wife Laurata.

Francis and Laurata Yuen have been married 31 years.

Their son, Jeffrey, was born prematurely at 31 weeks and experienced many attendant difficulties. Francis and Laurata are devoted parents.

Happily, Jeffrey is now 17 and started college in August at Biola University in Los Angeles.

Mrs. Yuen has had a difficult medical history, suffering from heart disease since age 17. She has had multiple surgeries relating to her progressive congestive heart failure symptoms.

Her most recent heart surgery on October 13, 2011 was a second attempted sternotomy and replacement of the Mitral and Tricuspid Valves.

Her medical difficulties are understandably associated with ongoing depression.

Her physical and emotional health is so fragile that Mr. Yuen has only recently told her of his anticipated incarceration.

The financial situation of the family is equally fragile with Laurata unable to work while Francis is incarcerated.

Mr. Yuen’s hope is that sufficient funds can be derived from the sale of the family home to satisfy most of the Court mandated Forfeitures while leaving enough funds to support his wife and son during his incarceration.

His son’s educational expenses are presently being paid by Mr. Yuen’s brother.

The balance of the monies owed pursuant to Court Orders will have to be paid over time after Mr. Yuen’s release.

 

Some of that is pretty full on, and I’m certainly not reprinting it to gloat.

What’s happening to Wang and Yuen’s families is the human cost of Ponzi schemes. Their own relatives are innocent victims, along with the investors they scammed – who I’m sure have their own stories of tragedy to tell.

They’re mostly in China though, so nobody’s asked.

The SEC had filed a concurrent civil case against eAdGear and Wang back in September 2014, with Wang’s memorandum revealing a settlement was recently reached.

Mr. Wang cooperated in that investigation, provided deposition testimony concerning his business practices, and he ultimately settled the SEC’s civil lawsuit in late August.

The parties did not admit to liability but Mr. Wang agreed to pay approximately two million dollars in disgorgement to settle the case, in addition to civil penalties.

To satisfy the forfeiture and the disgorgement order, Mr. Wang is in the process of selling real property that he owns and that was frozen during the pendency of the SEC litigation.

Yuen’s settlement saw him ordered to pay $1,619,000 in disgorgement.

How you can not admit liability for actions you’re fined millions dollars and sent to jail for 46 months for escapes me, but at least some funds were recovered.

Despite all this, Mr. Yuen remains optimistic about the future and committed to supporting his family during and after his release.

That optimism is a product of Mr. Yuen’s values but also is supported by his deep faith, as the Court can see from the letters of support from many in his Congregation.

Because of this criminal case and the disgorgement order, following his release from custody, Mr. Wang will have to start over to earn a living, both as a means of supporting himself and so that he can pay off the remaining civil penalties he will owe in the SEC case.

Run a global Ponzi schemes, them’s the breaks.

Both men have had a surrender date set for the 1st of April 2016, from hence their respective 46 month sentences will commence.