Businessman sentenced for defrauding Ex-Im Bank

Businessman sentenced for defrauding Ex-Im Bank    The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia sentenced Edward Chua, former owner of exporting companies EMMCCO and ECCO, both of Montebello, Calif., on May 14 to 37 months in prison in connection with his involvement in a $10 million scheme to defraud the U.S. Export-Import Bank.
   In addition to his prison sentence, Chua was placed on 36 months of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution of $10.7 million to the Ex-Im Bank.
   Chua pleaded guilty on July 13, 2007, to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and one count of mail fraud. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Chua admitted that from November 1999 to January 2005, he acted as an “exporter” in about $10 million worth of fraudulent loan transactions, falsified documents sent to U.S. banks and to the Ex-Im Bank, and misappropriated about $10 million in loan proceeds. He also admitted to keeping about $300,000 of those proceeds and transferring about $9 million to bank accounts owned or controlled by a co-conspirator in the Philippines.
   Chua’s sentencing is part of a wider federal investigation into an $80 million scheme to defraud the Ex-Im Bank between November 1999 and December 2005.
   To date, seven individuals — Chua, Daniel Curran, David Villongco, Robert Delgado, Christina Song, Edward Javier and Jaime Galvez — have pleaded guilty to charges related to their involvement in the fraud scheme.
   Curran was sentenced on April 23, to 41 months in prison; Villongco was sentenced on Feb. 29, to 33 months in prison; Delgado was sentenced on Oct. 5, 2007 to 24 months in prison; and Galvez was sentenced on Jan. 7 to 12 months in prison.
   In addition, four other individuals — Marilyn Ong, Ildefonso Ong, Nelson Ti and Joseph Tirona — have been indicted by a federal grand jury sitting in the District of Columbia for their alleged involvement in the scheme.
   These cases are being investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s Los Angeles Division and the FBI’s Washington Field Office.