A California man was sentenced to three years and six months in prison for defrauding the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) by selling over $3.5 million worth of counterfeit or misrepresented fan assemblies.
According to court documents, Steve H.S. Kim, 63, of Alameda County, controlled Company A, which sold fan assemblies to the DLA that were either counterfeit or used but claimed as new. To deceive the DLA into accepting these fan assemblies, Kim created counterfeit labels—some bearing Company B’s registered trademarks—that he attached to the products. When questioned about their origin, Kim provided fake tracing documents that he often signed using a false identity. Some of these counterfeit fans were installed or intended for installation in critical military systems including a nuclear submarine, an aircraft laser system, and a surface-to-air missile system.
Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Ismail J. Ramsey for the Northern District of California; Special Agent in Charge Bryan D. Denny of the DoD Office of Inspector General's Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS), Western Field Office; Special Agent in Charge Greg Gross of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) Economic Crimes Field Office; Special Agent in Charge Tatum King of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); and Special Agent in Charge Keith K. Kelly of the Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division’s (Army CID) Fraud Field Office made the announcement.
The case was investigated by DCIS, NCIS, HSI, and Army CID.
Assistant Chief Kyle C. Hankey, Trial Attorney David D. Hamstra, and former Trial Attorney Louis Manzo from the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section along with Assistant U.S. Attorney Katherine Lloyd-Lovett for the Northern District of California prosecuted the case. Assistant Deputy Chief Adrienne Rose and Senior Counsels Jason Gull and Matthew A. Lamberti from the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section provided substantial assistance with the investigation.