Four men are being held in the Rowan County Detention Center, each on a half-million-dollar bond, accused of being involved in a large-scale financial fraud scheme.
The men and a 15-year-old were stopped on Interstate 85 Thursday. All are from New York and Texas.
Members of the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office Aggressive Criminal Enforcement Unit and the Davie County Sheriff’s Office were working together when the group was arrested. Authorities say one of the men arrested is a Chinese national.
The suspects were traveling southbound in a 2011 Acura sport-utility vehicle with a Texas registration and were stopped at mile marker 68, the China Grove/Rockwell exit, for a routine traffic infraction.
The driver of the SUV, later identified as Hang Zheng, 28, of Texas and a Chinese national, provided consent for officers to search the vehicle. Deputies discovered a credit card decoder and 17 forged credit cards.
The suspects claimed to be traveling from New York to Houston, according to a press release.
Investigators charged the following:
• Hang Zheng, 28, of the 8910 block of Mobud Drive, Houston, Texas, with 17 counts felony credit card forgery, one count felony possession of a financial transaction card forgery device, one count misdemeanor contributing to the delinquency of a minor. He was issued a $500,000 secured bond and remains in the Rowan County Detention Center.
• Guoxiang Chen, 18, of New York, with 17 counts felony credit card forgery, one count felony possession of a financial transaction card forgery device, one count misdemeanor contributing to the delinquency of a minor. He was issued a $500,000 secured bond and remains in the Rowan County Detention Center.
• Steven Ye, 16, of the 5700 block of 6th Avenue, Brooklyn, N.Y., 17 counts felony credit card forgery, one count felony possession of a financial transaction card forgery device, one count misdemeanor resist, obstruct, delay an officer. He was issued a $500,000 secured bond and remains in the Rowan County Detention Center.
• Li Ying Dong, 17, of the 5100 block of 7th Avenue, Brooklyn, N.Y., with 17 counts felony credit card forgery, one count felony possession of a financial transaction card forgery device, one count misdemeanor contributing to the delinquency of a minor. He also remains in the county jail under a $500,000 secured bond.
Investigators say the scheme was to falsely encode information on the credit cards using fraudulent bank account numbers, without authorization, and alter the encoded information by altering the bank account information on the magnetic strips.
The juvenile, who possesses a fictitious Georgia license, was charged with unlawful display of a fictitious license/learner’s permit. The juvenile was taken into custody by Juvenile Services and is being held in Alexander County.
The ACE Team was assisted in the investigation by the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigative Division, the U.S. Secret Service and U.S. Department of Homeland Security.