Seven men were arrested on money laundering and conspiracy charges for an organized scheme to sell supplies to various plumbing and home improvement businesses in Queens and Brooklyn.
The organized ring purchased supplies using fraudulently obtained gift cards from The Home Depot and Lowe’s home improvement stores.
More than $3 million of the gift certificates were redeemed at retail stores in Nassau County, according to Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly who spoke about the arrests at the March 5 news conference. She declined to share the exact number of stores impacted in Nassau.
“Video surveillance, camera footage and transaction records obtained through this investigation put these defendants at dozens of Home Depot and Lowe’s stores in New York,” Donnelly said. She added that the operation worked like a “well-oiled machine”
The seven men accused: Jie Lin, 32, Sky Lin, 36, Lifa Wang, 49, and Lixi Wang, 40, all from Flushing. Hai Tao Liu, 38, of Staten Island, and Jia Bin Chen, 39 and Yu Lin, 35, both from Fresh Meadows. All face up to 5 to 15 years in prison if convicted. Sky Lin was identified as the alleged ringleader of the scheme, according to Donnelly.
The district attorney’s Office, together with the Nassau County Police Department and Home Depot and Lowe’s investigators, conducted a 15-month long investigation into the alleged operation. The investigation uncovered roughly $20 million using gift cards from the home improvement stores between Jan. 3, 2023, and March 4 of this year.
Donnelly said that the seven men allegedly used stolen funds, obtained through a computer scam that targeted more than 1,800 victims in 45 states, to buy copper pipes, electrical wire and other equipment for resale to local home improvement businesses in New York City.
The men allegedly stored the merchandise in several buildings in Bayside, Brooklyn, Fresh Meadows and Flushing. As the investigation continued, a complex computer-based scam was uncovered, Donnelly said. The deception used spyware pop-ups and scam messages targeted victims across the country according to the charges.
The scam allegedly swindled victims to believe that their computer, identities, financial information, or other data had been compromised and instructed them to call a phone number.
When victims called the number, Donnelly said that they were told to buy Home Depot and Lowe’s gift cards to offset charges or to assist in a law enforcement investigation. After the arrests, police recovered enough products to fill a dozen boxes trucks, $100,000 in cash, and found several vans with merchandise inside.
In total, the seven men were allegedly involved in more than 6,000 transactions on more than 400 different dates at more than 80 Home Depot or Lowe’s locations in the state. Donnelly confirmed the office is continuing to investigate the alleged computer scam.
County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder praised the cooperation between NCPD and the district attorney’s office during the investigation into the alleged scheme. He also criticized cashless bail, a system where individuals arrested for certain crimes, particularly non-violent offenses, are released before trial without bail.
“What angers me is that we have thousands of victims that are out, defrauded by these individuals,” Ryder said. “Six of the seven walked out yesterday with an ankle bracelet because of cashless bail.”
New York's 2020 bail reform law eliminated cash bail for most misdemeanors and non-violent felonies. Ryder said that, “If we are going to be able to prosecute these people we should keep there where they belong, and that’s jail.”
There are at least five more suspects being sought. Looking to the future, Donnelly said that “together, we will continue to break up these organizations, protect our communities, and ensure that businesses thrive in Nassau County.”
