Montco Man Bilked Tech Company Out Of $250K In Hard Drive Scheme: AG

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, PA — A Montgomery County man has been charged with bilking a tech company out of $250,000 in a fraudulent return scheme of computer hard drives, authorities said.

Kwan Woo Lee, 29, of Wyncote, was charged Wednesday with corrupt organizations, theft by unlawful taking, receiving stolen property, access device fraud, and related offenses in a scheme that cost Seagate Technology $250,000 in stolen computer hard drives. state Attorney General Dave Sunday announced.

An investigation revealed that, for more than a year, Lee bought hard drives from the data storage company, then claimed they were damaged and was provided a new device — under terms that he would return the original item, authorities said.

Lee did not return the original item (which was not damaged). Instead, he sold dozens of them on the secondary market.

“This defendant took advantage of a company’s warranty program to intentionally defraud the company and make money — that is theft,” Sunday said.

Lee was arraigned Wednesday afternoon, and bail was set at $50,000. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 10.

Per Seagate’s policy, if a faulty hard drive is not returned, the customer’s credit card is charged the full value of the new drive. However, Lee’s card was not able to be charged because he always used a prepaid card.

Lee, in total, received over 400 hard drives at 18 addresses in Montgomery and Butler counties. He used prepaid cards to facilitate 30 fraudulent returns.

Agents were able to trace email addresses and phone numbers used for the warranty claims back to Kwan Woo Lee.