MIYE CHON, a 36-year-old woman from Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, is going to federal prison for stealing more than $1 million from customer accounts at BankAsiana in Fort Lee. The former assistant vice president and operations officer was sentenced to 81 months behind bars after pleading guilty to bank fraud, embezzlement, and aggravated identity theft.
Chon, also known as Karen Chon, exploited her position of trust for years, siphoning cash from customer certificate of deposit (CD) accounts by transferring funds into the bank’s vault cash account — then walking out with stacks of untraceable bills. On dozens of occasions, she took tens of thousands at a time. One transfer alone moved $100,000 from a customer’s CD without consent.
Her access to internal systems, customer records, and the physical vault gave her unchecked power. Instead of protecting the bank’s assets, she weaponized her role. Chon didn’t stop at theft — she opened a fraudulent account in someone else’s name and forged checks, deepening the fraud and violating federal identity laws.
U.S. District Judge William H. Walls handed down the sentence in federal court in Newark today. In addition to 81 months in prison, Chon was sentenced to two years of supervised release and ordered to pay full restitution: $1,350,081. The judgment lands hard, but it can’t erase the damage to victims whose savings were raided.
The FBI’s Newark field office, under Special Agent in Charge Timothy Gallagher, led the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Daniel Shapiro and Lakshmi Srinivasan Herman prosecuted the case for the U.S. Attorney’s Office Economic Crimes Unit. U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman said the conviction sends a message: betrayal of public trust in financial institutions will be met with maximum consequence.
This case was prosecuted as part of President Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force — a sprawling crackdown linking over 20 federal agencies and 94 U.S. attorneys. Since 2009, the task force has pursued more than 18,000 financial fraud cases. Chon’s fall is another notch in a system finally holding white-collar criminals accountable. Defense counsel was Matthew Jeon, Esq., Fort Lee, New Jersey.
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Key Facts
- State: New Jersey
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: Official Source ↗
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