CALIFORNIA – The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Hasan Korkmaz, owner of San Diego Logistics Group Inc., a Santee trucking company, was arraigned, June 4, on an 18-count indictment charging him with bank fraud, money laundering and identity theft.
According to the indictment, in 2022 and 2023, Korkmaz ran a credit card “bust-out” scheme – maxing out credit lines without intending to pay.
Korkmaz opened fraudulent credit card accounts
The indictment alleges that Korkmaz obtained names, dates of birth, social security numbers and other personally identifiable information corresponding with real people.
Korkmaz then applied for numerous credit card accounts with that information.
After opening the accounts, he allegedly used the credit cards to make charges at various businesses, including his trucking company.
The charges were in the thousands of dollars each, including some charges as high as $18,500 in a single transaction.
Funds were transferred to a Turkish bank account
Korkmaz allegedly made fraudulent payments using checks drawn on accounts with insufficient funds or drawn on non-existent accounts to temporarily restore credit limits, then maxed out the cards again, according to the indictment.
He allegedly laundered the proceeds by transferring funds to a Turkish bank account he controlled, causing over $2.1 million losses to two banks.
Korkmaz is charged with:
- 12 counts of bank fraud (up to 30 years per count, and $1 million fine per count);
- 2 counts of money laundering (up to 20 years per count, and $500,000 fine or double the offense amount) and;
- 4 counts of aggravated identity theft (2-year mandatory minimum prison sentence to run consecutively to the felony).
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