March 04, 2008

California Man Sentenced to 33 Months in Prison in Connection with $20 Million Scheme to Defraud the Export-import Bank of the United States

WASHINGTON – David Villongco, 51, of San Mateo, Calif., was sentenced to 33 months in prison in connection with a $20 million scheme to defraud the Export-Import Bank of the United States, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor of the District of Columbia announced today.

Villongco was sentenced today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by the Honorable Richard W. Roberts. In addition to his prison sentence, Villongco was placed on three years of supervised release, ordered to pay restitution of $14,284,652 to the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank), and complete 100 hours of community service. The substantial assistance Villongco provided to the government in its investigation and prosecution of others was taken into consideration at sentencing.

Villongco pleaded guilty on March 16, 2007, to one count of conspiracy to defraud the government with respect to claims and one count of mail fraud. At the time of his plea, Villongco forfeited $150,000 in proceeds from the crime.

As part of his plea, Villongco, the former co-owner and manager of PBJ Venture International Corporation, an exporting company located in San Mateo, Calif., admitted that from October 2001 until August 2004, he and a co-conspirator acted as purported “exporters” in approximately $20 million worth of fraudulent loan transactions, falsified documents sent to U.S. banks and to the Ex-Im Bank, and misappropriated approximately $16 million in loan proceeds. Villongco admitted keeping approximately $150,000 of those proceeds and transferring approximately $15 million to bank accounts owned or controlled by co-conspirators in the Philippines.

Villongco’s sentencing is part of a broader investigation into an $80 million scheme to defraud the Ex-Im Bank between November 1999 and December 2005. To date, six individuals – Villongco, Daniel Curran, Edward Chua, Robert Delgado, Christina Song and Jaime Galvez – have pleaded guilty for their involvement in the fraud scheme. Delgado was sentenced on Oct. 5, 2007, to concurrent terms of 24 months incarceration, and Galvez was sentenced to 12 months incarceration. In addition, four other individuals – Marilyn Ong, Ildefonso Ong, Nelson Ti and Joseph Tirona – have been indicted by a federal grand jury sitting in the District of Columbia for their alleged involvement in the scheme.

These cases are being investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s Los Angeles Division and the FBI’s Washington Field Office. The cases are being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Hank Bond Walther of the Fraud Section of the Criminal Division and Michael K. Atkinson, Assistant U.S. Attorney in the District of Columbia.

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For more information on federal criminal defense law, contact the Law Offices of Joseph Shemaria of Los Angeles, California.