A former manager of city of Industry and Arcadia branches of Cathay Bank has been indicted on federal charges alleging he utilized multiple customers' home equity lines of credit and deposit accounts for his own benefit, officials announced Friday.
Weixin Chen, also known as Tony Chen, 33 of Chino Hills is charged with five counts of bank fraud, one count of aggravated identity theft and eight counts of making a false entry, according to the FBI.
Chen orchestrated a scheme in which he falsely informed applicants that their loan application had been approved by Cathay Bank, the indictment alleges.
He then opened checking accounts at the same bank without the consent of the customers by forging their signatures, federal prosecutors contend.
As part of the scheme, prosecutors said, Chen allegedly transferred funds between Cathay Bank accounts in the names of these customers to conceal the fact that their applications had not been approved. Subsequently, he received cash payments from customers that were intended for their loans and, rather than applying these cash payments toward their loans, Chen stole thousands of dollars for himself, the indictment, filed in L.A. federal court, alleges.
A status conference is scheduled for Sept. 15, with trial set for Oct. 7 in downtown Los Angeles.
If convicted, Chen would face up to 30 years in federal prison for each of the bank fraud charges, two years for the aggravated identity theft charge and 40 years for each of the false entry charges, prosecutors noted.