After meeting a Hawaii woman at a Honolulu restaurant in 1988, Bing Long Yee created 13 different identities over the next 25 years to bilk the woman and her friends out of $1.4 million, authorities said.
In the end, Yee spent all the money on living and gambling in Las Vegas, the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs said.
In their first meeting, Yee told the 63-year-old woman that he was a wealthy owner of property in Canada. He later said he was involved in several business ventures, including selling real estate in Canada, exporting jade from China and investing in a restaurant on Kauai, the DCCA said.
Yee told the woman that if she invested in his business ventures, or investment program, he would give her a substantial part of his profit or name her as a beneficiary in his will, the DCCA said. The woman never received anything.
On Friday, DCCA authorities issued a preliminary order against Yee to stop his alleged violation of state securities laws. Yee is not registered to transact securities in Hawaii, and the security he sold to the woman was also unregistered, the DCCA said. Yee has 30 days from the date of the order to request an appeal, or the order becomes final.
A DCCA spokesman said Yee currently lives in Washington state. Authorities don’t know Yee’s birth date, but believe he is in his late 70s. A source said Yee has been in a hospital after a fall.
According to the complaint, Yee was never involved in any business venture and moved to Las Vegas, where he lived with his girlfriend or at a casino-hotel.
He created 13 fake identities and disguised his voice over the phone to adopt the personas of people he invented to defraud the woman. When the woman expressed interest in investing, Yee pretended to introduce her over the phone to a "land rich" surgeon from Canada; an attorney assisting Yee; and a friend of his who had been in the investment program, the document said.
Yee also pretended to be 10 different attorneys and spoke to three of the woman’s friends.
The woman mailed or wired money to various people she thought were assisting the "attorneys" but who were Yee’s girlfriend or employees of the casino where Yee gambled. Yee told those people that he was a U.S. Marine veteran needing help receiving pension funds from a bank manager. They delivered those funds to Yee as a favor.
By last February the woman, who is now 87, had given $1,414,145 to Yee, including $974,070 that she collected from 10 friends.
Hawaii Commissioner of Securities Tung Chan warned consumers against investing a large sum of money in elaborate schemes.
"Complication, lots of moving parts, and references to government payouts are classic tools of con artists to disarm investors and make them feel safe, smart, important and lucky," she said in a statement. "If it sounds like an investment James Bond would make, it is a red flag."
The order seeks restitution for the woman, $150,000 in penalties and a permanent injunction to stop Yee from transacting securities in the state.
An FBI spokesman said an criminal investigation is ongoing, but no charges have been filed.
