Former Business Relationship Officer at United Commercial Bank Sentenced to 27 Months for Bank Embezzlement

SAN FRANCISCO—Alex Yan was sentenced yesterday to 27 months in prison and ordered to pay $235,695.31 in restitution for bank embezzlement, United States Attorney Joseph P. Russoniello announced.

Mr. Yan pleaded guilty on February 9, 2009.  According to the plea agreement, Mr. Yan admitted to embezzling money while he was a Business Relationship Officer with United Commercial Bank.  Mr. Yan agreed that he violated the trust of clients who typically dealt with him directly, in order to take money from their accounts without arousing much suspicion.  Mr. Yan also agreed that he used other tactics to avoid detection, such as transferring the embezzled funds into a bank account he opened in a fake name.  Mr. Yan agreed that the total amount of money which he embezzled was approximately $235,695. 

Mr. Yan, age 48, of Oakland, was indicted by a federal grand jury on November 18, 2008, and charged with one count of bank embezzlement.

The sentence was handed down by U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Hall Patel following a guilty plea on one count of bank embezzlement, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 656.   Judge Patel also sentenced the defendant to a 3 year period of supervised release in addition to the restitution ordered.  The defendant will begin serving the sentence on October 1, 2009.

Christina Hua is the Assistant U.S. Attorney who is prosecuting the case with the assistance of Elizabeth Garcia and Wilson Wong.  The prosecution is the result of a one year investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.