Chinese National Indicted for Role in Gift Card Fraud Conspiracy, in New Hampshire Homeland Security Task Force Investigation

Chinese National Indicted for Role in Gift Card Fraud Conspiracy, in New Hampshire Homeland Security Task Force Investigation

CONCORD - A Chinese national was indicted for his alleged role in an international conspiracy to defraud victims of millions of dollars' worth of gift cards, U.S. Attorney Erin Creegan announces.

Jinbin Ren, 38, a Chinese national and resident of Lynnfield, Massachusetts, was charged with Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud. He will appear in federal court at a later date.

According to the indictment and public record, the defendant is originally from China. He and several Chinese nationals working in the United States and abroad acquired gift cards stolen from victims through romance fraud, elder fraud, hacking, and other scams. The conspirators then used the gift cards to purchase Apple products and other high-value electronics and had them shipped to New Hampshire due to the state's lack of a sales tax. The defendant operated a warehouse in Salem which was used to consolidate and ship the electronics to China and Hong Kong. Law enforcement searched the defendant's warehouse in 2024 and found iPhones purchased with gift cards stolen from American victims. The conspirators used WeChat, a Chinese messaging app, to coordinate purchases, sales, shipments, and payments through cryptocurrency.

The charge of Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud provides a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, up to 3 years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss, whichever is greater. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.

The details contained in the charging documents are allegations. The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Homeland Security Investigations, IRS Criminal Investigations, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the Concord Police Department are leading the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander S. Chen of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Hampshire and Trial Attorneys Emily Cohen and Madison Albrecht of the Department of Justice's Money Laundering, Narcotics, and Forfeiture Section are prosecuting the case.

This prosecution is part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad. Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full might of United States law enforcement towards identifying, investigating, and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations, which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders. In performing this work, the HSTF places special emphasis on investigating and prosecuting those engaged in child trafficking or other crimes involving children. The HSTF further utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States. HSTF New Hampshire comprises agents and officers from FBI, HSI, IRS, DEA, ATF, USMS, and DSS with the prosecution being led by the United States Attorney's Office for the District of New Hampshire.