ID Fraud Ring Allows Hundreds to Overstay Visas, Diamond Bar Man Arrested in Connection

A Diamond Bar man is facing felony charges for allegedly helping to mastermind and operate a scheme to provide undocumented Asian immigrants with valid California driver's licenses and state identification cards.

The man, 49-year-old Dae Wahn Ahn, aka Caijun Zhang, was arrested alongside 47-year-old Chong Hwan Kim, aka Wang Xiao Jun, of Norwalk in Los Angeles on Wednesday.

Both suspects were found to be living illegally in Los Angeles County after their visas had expired. Authorities allege that the men devised an elaborate scheme to use altered Canadian passports and legitimate Social Security numbers to obtain California driver's licenses and state identification cards for over 200 foreign nationals from Korea and China.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson Virginia Kice said that customers paid between $3,000 and $5,000 for the driver's licenses and identification cards, according to search warrant affidavits. Authorities said many of the customers had also overstayed their visas.

Investigators said the two suspects found clients by advertising in Korean newspapers and through word of mouth.

The arrest came after a 17-month investigation by the California Department of Motor Vehicles and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE spokesperson Virginia Kice said, which began in Jan. 2010 after a manager of a Bakersfield DMV office noticed irregularities in a Canadian passport presented as proof of legal residence by an Asian woman seeking a driver's license.

The suspects are being charged on multiple felony counts, including: manufacturing and distributing false documents, using a false document to conceal citizenship, perjury, forgery, conspiracy, and false personation.

Anh and Kim are scheduled to be arraigned in Bakersfield Superior Court Friday.

Reporting contributed by City News Service