Georgia Man Sentenced to One Year in Prison for Exploiting Office Rewards Program, Stealing Almost $300K Worth of Printers

PHILADELPHIA – First Assistant United States Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams announced today that Sung W. Sohn, 50, of Burford, Georgia was sentenced to 12 months’ and one day imprisonment, and ordered to pay $224,000 in restitution by Chief United States District Judge Juan R. Sánchez for the interstate transportation of stolen property related to a scheme he perpetrated to steal and ship hundreds of office printers by misusing a product rewards program.

In September 2019, the defendant pleaded guilty to an Information charging him with interstate transportation of stolen property in 2017 and 2018.  During this time period, Sohn stole, and then sold and shipped, over 600 office printers by misusing a product rewards program offered to Sohn’s employer by Company 1, a manufacturer of office printers and printer supplies. 

Sohn worked in Philadelphia for a company that purchased printers manufactured by Company 1.  The company offered reward points to customers that also purchased ink and toner from Company 1.  In June of 2017, Sohn used an account number he found on a shipping box and associated it to his employer’s rewards account with Company 1.  The account number was not for an account actually used by the employer, and it generated far more points than would be possible given his employer’s ink and toner purchases.  Sohn then redeemed these improperly obtained reward points in order to receive free printers from Company 1, sold the printers online, and kept the proceeds for his personal use.  Sohn fraudulently obtained 604 printers in this way, which was a loss to Company 1 at retail value of $293,000.

“This Office takes white collar fraud and theft offenses very seriously,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Williams. “And that’s exactly what this was – it was theft.  The defendant took advantage of his position with his employer to improperly hoard rewards points and sell printers to which he was not entitled. We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to protect innocent individuals and businesses from being victimized by this type of fraud.”

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Albert S. Glenn.