A 90-year-old Honolulu man pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court to defrauding at least 10 victims of more than $2.5 million.

Winfred Hung Wong pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud for the scheme and three counts of loan fraud for defrauding American Savings Bank and Bank of Hawaii for loans totaling $730,000.

Wong could face up to 20 years' imprisonment, a fine of up to $250,000 and supervised release of up to three years for one count of mail fraud.

He also faces up to 30 years' imprisonment, a fine of up to $1 million and five years of supervised release for three counts of loan fraud.

Wong will be sentenced at 3 p.m. July 26.

In one case, according to court documents, Wong met with a woman in March 2007 at a Honolulu restaurant to explain he and his partners would invest $50,000 of her money in China. He told the woman, identified in court documents as “;M.C.,”; that they provided short-term loans to people in China who were waiting for banks to approve loans and that it was safe because the banks would pay them back first.

  Winfred Wong admits to stealing millions

 

A 90 year old man from Honolulu admitted to stealing millions from close friends.

 

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He said he would vouch for her and allow her to invest $50,000, and she would get the principal amount of $50,000 plus a $7,500 financing fee within 30 days, court documents said.

M.C. gave Wong a check for $50,000 on June 30, 2007, which he deposited into his Bank of Hawaii account, then used it to pay off his credit card bills and for his own purposes, according to the documents.

When Wong failed to pay back her money in 30 days, he told her he rolled the money over into a new investment for another 30 days, documents said. The woman never received any money back from Wong.

According to the documents, Wong also admitted submitting false tax returns for 1997 to 2004 to Bank of Hawaii, claiming an income of more than $1 million a year, when in fact he earned $14,600 in 2003 and $26,500 in 2004. He also submitted a 2005 personal financial statement that his wife, Emily, earned $230,000 a year, but she died in 2001.

The bank, based on those false tax returns and finance statement, gave him a six-month, unsecured line of credit for $100,000 in 2005 and an unsecured line of credit for $150,000 in 2006.

Wong also applied for and got a loan of $480,000 from American Savings Bank in 2005, claiming a net worth of $39 million and again using his dead wife's income on his loan application.