Four accused of laundering millions in Target gift cards in California, feds say

A money laundering ring acquired 5,000 Target gift cards from scammers in a $2.5 million operation in Southern California, federal officials say.

Four people have been indicted by a grand jury on suspicion of conspiring to launder proceeds of wire fraud, a felony, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Central California said in a news release.

Authorities arrested Bowen Hu, 26, of Hacienda Heights, and Tairan Shi, 27, of Diamond Bar, both Chinese nationals, on Tuesday, the release said.

In addition, Blade Bai, 33, of El Monte, a U.S. citizen, and Yan Fu, 58, of Chino Hills, also a Chinese national, will be summoned to federal court in November, the release said.

The four are accused of acquiring more than 5,000 Target gift cards from a group of scammers calling themselves the Magic Lamp, federal officials say.

The scammers convinced people they had contacted by telephone, mostly older adults, to buy the gift cards to pay off bogus arrest warrants or fix fake computer problems, the release said.

“Gift cards are for presents to friends and loved ones — they should never be used for payments to any government or corporate entity,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Tracy L. Wilkison in the release.

“Don’t be fooled by callers claiming to be with a government agency, a bank or any other institution demanding that you purchase gift cards,” Wilkison warned. “There is no reason to purchase a gift card to resolve a problem with an account, your Social Security number or a supposed criminal case.”

The Magic Lamp scammers targeted people across the United States, then sold some of the gift card information online to the money laundering operation, prosecutors said.

Bai, Hu and Shi distributed the gift cards to runners, including Fu, who redeemed them at Target stores in Southern California for $2.5 million in cash, electronics and other products, according to prosecutors.

Some of the cards were redeemed the same day that scam victims turned them over to the Magic Lamp operation, with some of the proceeds being used to repay the scammers, the release said.

Fu traveled to as many as 17 Target stores in one day to redeem the gift cards, prosecutors said.

Bai, Hu, Shi and Fu could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted, the release said.

This story was originally published September 29, 2021 at 7:49 AM with the headline "Four accused of laundering millions in Target gift cards in California, feds say."