SAN FRANCISCO – Kerry Kit Yee Tang was arrested yesterday and appeared in federal court today to face bank fraud charges stemming from fraud committed upon her former employer, announced United States Attorney Stephanie M. Hinds and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Special Agent in Charge Tatum King.
According to the federal indictment unsealed today, Tang, 44, of San Francisco, was employed as the controller of a San Francisco-based company that provides interior design services. The indictment alleges that Tang made unauthorized payments to herself and to outside companies from two of the victim company’s bank accounts, embezzling a total of about $1.9 million.
The indictment alleges that from March 2019 to December 2020, Tang engaged in a scheme in which she obtained checks from her company’s bank accounts and inserted “Kerry Tang” on the payee line. The indictment describes that Tang, without authorization to do so, signed the checks with the signatures of one or more of the authorized signers. Tang then deposited these checks into her own personal bank accounts. The indictment alleges that in this manner Tang obtained approximately 66 unauthorized checks from her company and deposited them to her personal bank accounts. The total amount of these deposits exceeded $1.6 million.
The indictment further alleges that in November 2020 and December 2020 Tang wrote checks from a company bank account in amounts up to $99,000 to pay various companies for providing services to Tang’s company. The indictment alleges that Tang signed each check with the signature of her company’s authorized signers. However, Tang’s company never engaged the services of these companies, and Tang was not authorized to write the checks. Moreover, the indictment describes that three of the companies shared the same location, a residential address in Bayonne, New Jersey.
Tang made her initial appearance in federal court today in San Francisco before United States Magistrate Judge Sallie Kim. Her next court appearance is scheduled for March 15, 2022, at 2:30 p.m. before United States District Judge Richard Seeborg in San Francisco. Tang is out of custody.
The federal indictment charges Tang with five counts of bank fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1344(2). The maximum statutory sentence for a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1344(2) is 30 years in prison, a fine up to $1,000,000 or twice the gross gain or loss amount, and five years of supervised release following prison. However, any sentence following a conviction would be imposed by a court only after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the federal statute governing the imposition of a sentence, 18 U.S.C. § 3553.
The charges contained in the criminal indictment are only allegations. As in any criminal case, the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.
The case is being prosecuted by the Corporate and Securities Fraud Section of the United States Attorney’s Office. The prosecution is the result of an investigation by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the San Francisco Police Department.
Making sure that victims of federal crimes are treated with compassion, fairness and respect.
