Former County Official, Who Embezzled $6.7M, Gets Four Years

Byung (Peter) Bang | Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office

A former chief operating official with Montgomery County’s Department of Economic Development was sentenced to four years Friday for an embezzlement scheme that stole $6.7 million from the county, according to a Justice Department statement.

Byung Il “Peter” Bang, 59, who lives in Germantown, had pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt to the embezzlement. According to prosecutors, Bang took money that had been earmarked to help small businesses.

As part of his sentence, Bang is expected to make full restitution. Bang will appear before Judge Paula Xinis again on Friday, March 1, when she will finalize the judgment.

Xinis also sentenced Bang to three years of supervised release, according to a statement from the Justice Department. Bang was convicted of federal wire fraud and tax charges, in connection with the embezzlement and his failure to report the money on his tax returns.

Bang held the COO job with the county’s DED officer from 2010 through 2016. In 2016, the office was privatized and Bang’s position was moved to the Montgomery County Department of Finance. He was fired in May 2017.

While Bang was with economic development, the department established business incubator centers that provided small businesses with below-market rent, placing them in an environment with other small businesses, and providing education on how to run a business, prosecutors said.

As the COO, Bang oversaw budgets and was authorized to request disbursement of county funds. Bang’s position also enabled him to authorize and direct the disbursement of money from county partners, including the Maryland Economic Development Corp., and the Maryland Conference & Visitors Bureau, without any significant oversight.

In 2010, Montgomery County and the Chungcheongbuk-Do province of South Korea entered into an agreement to develop an incubator fund, according to the Justice Department. On July 20, 2010, Bang incorporated a company called Chungbuk Incubator Fund LLC and opened four bank accounts in the name of the company, listing his home address as the address of the LLC.

Bang admitted that between 2010 and 2016, he fraudulently authorized the disbursement of $6,705,669.37 from the Montgomery County government to the bank accounts of the fraudulent entities that Bang created and controlled.  Bang told investigators that most of the funds were used to fuel his gambling addiction.

The defendant previously pleaded guilty to charges in Montgomery County Circuit Court. He is scheduled to be sentenced on those charges on March 7. Xinis ordered that Bang’s federal sentence will be served concurrent to whatever sentence is imposed on his state charges.

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