SAN FRANCISCO — A Daly City man was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison and ordered to pay more than $200,000 in restitution for his role in a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme, court records show.
Mingtao Chen, 29, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson, who also ordered Chen to pay roughly $208,163 to victims of the scheme. Chen was implicated in a wide-ranging scam that involved victims being duped into wiring over large sums of money.
Prosecutors estimated there are “dozens if not hundreds” of victims across the United States and that altogether the scammers brought in around $2 million. Chen was reportedly caught using a passport to set up a bank account with a pseudonym, and authorities say victims of his scams would be duped into wiring money into that account. Prosecutors say he attempted to leave the country after learning he was under investigation…