
Investigated for aiding and abetting cell phone scamming and aiding and abetting violations of the Telephone Fraud Restitution Act
■ Case Overview You are a self-employed business owner who has operated a cell phone store and has been doing well. He was investigated by law enforcement for allegedly aiding and abetting a so-called "cell phone scam" criminal organization. Specifically, the investigative agency believed that the client helped to open cell phones for cell phone scammers even though he knew that the cell phones were not for actual use. The client came to Ongang Law Firm with deep remorse for the improper opening of some cell phones in the process of handling the opening business. ■ Case Issues The key issue in this case was whether the client was intentionally aiding and abetting, especially given that only 0.4% of the total number of activations were problematic, that the client had its own management system in place to prevent illegal activations, including a deposit system, and that the client had never been involved in a crime during its decades of business. Assistance from Onkang