Two men plead guilty in bank fraud case

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Jia Ming Huang, 45, of New York City, and Rungen Huang, 38, of Florida, have pleaded guilty before Chief U.S. District Court Judge William M. Skretny, to conspiracy to commit bank fraud.

The charge carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison, a $1 million fine or both.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron J. Mango said Jia Ming Huang was the leader of a credit card counterfeiting ring in which Rungen Huang participated. Between July 23 and Dec. 12, 2009, Jia Ming Huang, Rungen Huang and seven co-defendants fraudulently obtained the credit and debit account numbers of hundreds of bank customers and used them to produce hundreds of counterfeit credit and debit cards to fraudulently withdraw cash from ATMs at the Seneca Niagara Casino, the Seneca Allegany Casino, the Salamanca Bingo Hall, and various other casinos throughout the country.

Through the scheme, the defendants and other co-defendants obtained $510,500.

The case began in December 2009 when the New York State Police and the United States Secret Service began investigating a pattern of fraudulent withdrawals at the Seneca Niagara Casino and the Seneca Allegany Casino. On Dec. 12, 2009, Jia Ming Huang, Rungen Huang and several others were arrested following the execution of search warrants at three hotel rooms rented by the co-defendants in Salamanca and a van.

During the search warrants, a large amount of counterfeit credit card making equipment was seized, including credit card embossers, a tipping machine, a credit card reader, and sheets of credit card numbers.  

Jia Ming Huang and Rungen Huang are the seventh and eighth defendants to plead guilty in this case. They will be sentenced in June.