Judge sentences Hong Kong man arrested in Rockville Centre to 50 months

Joseph Mo Pun Lau, 57, a Chinese national who was arrested in Rockville Centre last July, was sentenced Monday by U.S. District Judge Christopher F. Droney in Hartford to 50 months of imprisonment, followed by five years of supervised release, for illegally re-entering the United States, stealing mail, defrauding four Connecticut banks and violating conditions of his supervised release that followed a previous federal conviction.

According to court documents and statements, in April 2010, Lau jammed the keyhole of a U.S. Post Office depository in Wilton, Conn., created a false key for the depository, and then removed checks from stolen mail. Lau also opened bank accounts at Wachovia Bank, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase and Citibank branches in Connecticut under different names using one of four false Chinese passports and U.S. resident alien cards. He created counterfeit checks ostensibly drawn on the residents’ accounts that were made payable to the individual under whose name he had set up the bank account, and then cashed checks for more than $90,000 at the respective banks.

Lau also stole checks from a U.S. Post Office in Rochester, depositing them at banks in Manhattan. The thefts in New York

state exceeded $120,000.

Lau illegally re-entered the U.S. after he was deported in 2007 following a 2005 conviction in Pennsylvania for bank fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, possession of U.S. mail keys and theft of mail. He was on federal supervised release when he committed the most recent offenses last April.

On July 9, Lau was arrested by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and officers from the Wilton Police Department at 80 S. Centre Ave. in the village. He has been detained since his arrest. Prosecutors did not reveal what he was doing in Rockville Centre.

On Sept. 23, Lau pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud and one count of illegally re-entering the United States after his deportation. On Monday, he was ordered to serve 38 months on those offenses, and a consecutive 12-months for violating conditions of his supervised release from his 2005 federal conviction. He was also ordered to pay $212,215 in restitution to the banks.