Photo by James Short.
Yanping Li, of Queens, NY, will face Magisterial District Judge Suzan Leonard on June 27 to answer to felony charges in a preliminary hearing following her arrest by Whitpain Police.
We all may wrack up the holiday bills and regret the charges afterward, but those costs are far more frustrating when you aren’t the one who rang them up. One Blue Bell resident found out, after attending a similar hearing in Chester County, that she too may be a victim of an identity theft scheme, which had impacted other community members, as well.
The Blue Bell woman found out last winter that someone had attempted to take a total of $58,000 from her Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) she’d taken out with her husband years prior. While the total loan was $250,000 at the time, according to police reports, the victim had not used the funds of recent.
Yanping Li, of Queens, NY, will face Magisterial District Judge Suzan Leonard on June 27 to answer to felony charges in a preliminary hearing following her arrest by Whitpain Township Police Department on April 24, after being notified by neighboring departments of the defendant’s alleged ongoing series of crimes.
Whitpain Township Police Department’s Detective Sergeant Thomas Wittig said, via his written criminal complaint, that he was notified in February of the issue. Per his complaint, Wittig said that on Feb. 12 he was contacted by telephone by Officer Christopher Ward of Easttown Township Police Department in Chester County. Ward told him that while he was juggling the charges for a local resident in his area, a Blue Bell resident also discovered similar evidence, following the same alleged series of events, and learned that she may need to file charges.
Ward directed the resident to her local police and Wittig.
Ward sent police reports on Li from his case, which outlined charges of forgery and identity theft. Li, 41, reportedly arrived at a TD Bank location in the Easttown Township department’s jurisdiction, and pretended to be the Blue Bell woman. This 55-year-old Whitpain Township resident had not authorized Li in any way, according to police, to act on her behalf nor make any withdrawals from her accounts.
Li, however, who police say had a Pennsylvania driver’s license with the resident’s name on it, came into the bank to update her contact information, change her address, and obtain a new debit card. Police said, after speaking to witnesses and reviewing security footage of the incident, that the 160-pound Li was far larger in stature than the small build of the victim, described by Wittig as being around 5’4” and “small, thin build.”
Wittig, who reported he met with the female victim and her husband on Monday, Feb. 12, said the couple relayed to him that they’d gone to the Chester County Court Hearing in order to testify against Li, who had stolen the victim’s identity “a few weeks ago.” After hearing more details, the couple asked to file additional charges through Whitpain Police for “additional fraud and theft they’d recently discovered, probably related to Yangping Li or her associates,” read Witting’s report.
The victim produced bank documents showing a date of Feb. 1, 2024, that noted a deduction of $58,000, which the couple says was stolen from their HELOC account. The account previously had a loan balance of zero dollars, according to reports. The Blue Bell couple met with TD Bank’s Assistant Store Manager Monica Taylor, from the Plymouth Meeting location, to discuss their suspicions of Li. Taylor provided both the couple and police, according to reports, the following documents:
The Blue Bell victim said to police that many of the documents included a misspelling of her name. She said, according to reports, that she was “not sure how the bank allowed these transactions to take place, with her name being misspelled.”
In addition to her bank documents, police also obtained from the victim a letter from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation dated Dec. 18, 2023, which stipulated that she’d attempted to change her address on her state-issued driver’s license. The victim told police she did not ask for this change and did not know the requested new address of 1948 N. 8th St., Philadelphia, PA 19122.
The alleged thefts, however, did not stop there. The victim also told police the following week, on Monday, Feb. 19, she’d received an email from AT&T. The email noted that she’d visited a Springfield, Delaware County location and requested a new telephone. The victim said she had not done so, and suspected Li as the offender once again.
Via a verbal statement to police, the victim provided the AT&T e- mail, which “indicates some unknown person went into the AT&T phone store and purchased a cell phone using her identity, without her permission or consent.” The purchased Apple iPhone 14 was financed for a total of $729.99. Police obtained the receipt for the purchase.
Police reports stated that the reporting victim, the same Blue Bell resident he’d spoken to one week prior, “told me the unknown person, who she feels was Yanping Li, was able to take over her current cell phone number for a brief period of time.” The victim said the alleged crime was conducted by purchasing a new sim card. The victim filed fraud documentation with AT&T, as well as her local police.
Following the victim’s report, Whitpain Police reached out to TD Bank’s Global Security, who responded that they too were looking into the matter. The office said that images they’d obtained of the alleged criminal could be delivered to police with a proper search warrant. They also relayed to police, according to the criminal complaint, that they were able to freeze $20,000 of the HELOC funds, however by that time, those responsible for the fraud had already removed separate withdrawals of $5,000, $32,000, and $1,000, totaling $38,000 in losses.
Following the proper search warrant, police were able to obtain arrest photos, documentation, and a security video of the crimes by March 13, 2024. Wittig said that, after he’d reviewed the tapes, a “newer model white sedan in nice condition” pulled into the Chester County TD Bank location. The car, he reported, was driven by an Asian male.
In the same video, dated Dec. 26, 2023, Wittig said he saw that this “male drops off an Asian female, who walks into the bank.”
The sergeant continued stating that “at 15:54 hours, an Asian female, with black hair and a puffy green jacket, carrying a designer pocketbook, walks into the TD Bank, located at 200 Lancaster Ave. in Easttown Township. The female receives help inside the bank from a white female bank employee, who appears to be pregnant.”
Wittig added that an additional still photograph was also obtained through TD with the same Asian female, “who appears to be approximately 40 years old, wearing a puffy green jacket, at the ATM with the employee,” he said in reports.
In a second video, Wittig reported that he saw “at 16:05 hours, the Asian female is dropped off outside the TD Bank located at 100 E. Swedesford Road in Devon, PA.” The two banks are just two miles apart.
“I captured a still shot photograph of the white sedan dropping off the same Asian female in the parking lot,” he wrote in reports. “The Asian female wearing the green jacket, now is wearing glasses. I captured a still shot photograph of the Asian female inside the bank and at the ATM.”
A third video witnessed by Wittig shows an unknown Asian male withdrawing $1,000 from a New York City ATM. He was wearing, according to reports, a black sweatshirt, a COVID facemask, and appears to be around 30 years of age. A still image was also captured by authorities of this transaction. This third transaction, also made on Dec. 26, 2023, was made at 18:11 hours, per reports.
Since the Dec. 27, 2023 arrest by Easttown Township Police Department in Chester County, and the subsequent discoveries by the Blue Bell resident, others have also come forward describing similar circumstances. In March of this year, Detective Sergeant Pete Stark, of the Northampton Township Police Department in Bucks County, reached out to Wittig. According to reports, Wittig said that Stark “told me his police department is working a similar bank fraud investigation, involving a similar looking Asian female.”
The Bucks County detective said that, using a law enforcement website, he had identified Li as the same person responsible for a bank fraud in his area.
“This bank fraud involved an Asian victim, who suffered a financial loss from a line of credit (HELOC) totaling $163,800.00,” said Wittig’s reports. “Detective Sergeant Stark sent me a photograph of an Asian female, approximately forty years old, wearing a green jacket, with glasses. The dates of the crimes are from Dec. 12, 2023 through Dec. 14, 2023, where multiple transactions take place at TD Bank locations. I reviewed the photograph, and the female appears to be the same female linked to my active investigation.“
Li currently faces of five felony charges, stemming from the Blue Bell resident’s case alone, including Theft By Unlawful Taking (Movable Property), Conspiracy, Receiving Stolen Property, Access Device Issued to Another Who Did Not Authorize Use, (Other Reason)/Access Device Is Unauthorized by Issuer, and one misdemeanor charge of Identity Theft, all stemming from charges filed on Feb. 12, 2024. Li will answer to the charges via a Preliminary Hearing before Judge Leonard, June 27, at 11 a.m., after a continuation of the case in May.
Li was held in Montgomery County Prison from April 30 to May 2, as she was unable to post bail. On May 2, her $50,000 bail was posted via bond surety through a professional bail bondsman.
According to Wittig’s report, on Friday, April 12 a “Federal Law Enforcement Agency sent out an Intelligence Bulletin regarding Bank Fraud committed by Chinese Actors targeting HELOC bank accounts.”
“The bulletin states actors obtain fraudulent drivers licenses, to open new bank accounts at bank branches in the victims’ name(s),” said Witting’s report. “The victims have existing HELOC accounts. The suspects access the HELOC accounts, via the online banking profile. The suspects then link a fraudulent bank account to the HELOC account. The suspects then transfer large amounts of money from the HELOC account to the new account. The suspects then go to the bank and make withdrawals.”
Area residents are reminded to review bank statements regularly and speak with your local financial branch if you have any concerns or do not recognize charges or withdrawals immediately.
