Two Defendants Plead Guilty in Transnational Fraud Scheme Targeting Elderly Victims

PROVIDENCE -Two individuals have pleaded guilty in federal court in Rhode Island for their roles in orchestrating and executing a transnational fraud and money laundering scheme targeting elderly victims in the United States and Canada, announced United States Attorney Charles C. Calenda.

Fangzheng Wang, 25, of Westborough, MA, a Chinese national and Cynthia Jia Sun, 25, of Houston, TX, a naturalized United States citizen born in China pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Sun and Wang are both scheduled to be sentenced on July 8, 2026. The sentences imposed will be determined by a federal district judge after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

According to court documents, Wang and Sun were part of a transnational fraud scheme targeting elderly victims in the United States and Canada.

Members of the conspiracy used pop-up messages and telephone calls falsely claiming that the victims' financial accounts had been compromised or were at risk. The pop-up message contained information that directed victims to call a "live agent," who informed the victims that their financial assets were at risk or could be garnished, but that they, the agent, could assist in protecting their assets.

During a series of calls, victims were connected with other persons who falsely claimed to be "representatives" of the victim's financial institutions and/or government agencies, including the Federal Trade Commission and Federal Reserve Bank. Those "representatives" were, in fact, members of the conspiracy. Some victims were told to transfer their funds via wire transfers and cryptocurrency into accounts controlled by conspiracy members.

Other victims were directed to withdraw cash or purchase gold bars with withdrawn cash and provide the cash or gold bars to a purported government courier, after being told that the courier would transfer the cash or gold to a secure government location until the issue with the victims' accounts was resolved.

Wang and Sun participated in the scheme by communicating and coordinating with co-defendants to make pickups of cash and gold from victims, traveling to the victims' residences and picking up the cash and gold from the victims, and thereafter transporting and transferring the victims' cash and gold to other conspiracy members.

At the time of the indictment, law enforcement had identified approximately 300 individuals in at least 37 states, including several in Rhode Island, who have been defrauded. To date, victims of the conspiracy group of which Wang and Sun were members are estimated to have suffered known losses exceeding $5 million. However, investigators have identified a bank account through which approximately $16 million in additional suspected fraud funds appear to have been laundered.

The charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison, followed by a term of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Denise M. Barton.

The matter was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Providence and the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation, as part of the Rhode Island Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF), a multi-agency task force focused on intelligence-driven, multi-jurisdictional operations to disrupt and dismantle the most significant drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations.

This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department's Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETFs) and Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN).