United States of America v. Hasan Korkmaz

San Diego, California, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with bank fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. 1344. money laundering in violation of 18 U.S.C. 1957, and identity theft, in violation of 18 U.S.C. 1028.

Hasan Korkmaz, the owner and operator of San Diego Logistics Group Inc., a Santee trucking company, admitted that he obtained names, dates of birth, social security numbers and other personally identifiable information corresponding with real individuals. Korkmaz then applied for numerous credit card accounts with that information. After opening the fraudulent credit cards accounts, Korkmaz used the credit cards to incur charges at various businesses, including Korkmaz’s San Diego Logistics Group Inc. The charges were in the thousands of dollars each, including some charges as high as $18,500 in a single transaction.

To perpetuate the scheme, Korkmaz admitted that he also made fraudulent payments, with checks drawn on accounts with insufficient funds or drawn on non-existent accounts, to the credit card accounts, thereby temporarily restoring the available credit limits. Korkmaz would then incur additional charges on the credit card accounts at or near the maximum credit limits for the accounts. In total, Korkmaz caused over $2,103,000 in losses to two banks.

Korkmaz also laundered the bank fraud proceeds, including by transferring proceeds from the fraud scheme internationally to a bank account in Türkiye controlled by Korkmaz. As set forth in public filings, immediately after pulling off the sophisticated $2 million dollar credit card fraud scheme using stolen identities—targeting two banks and almost 100 individual victims—and laundering that money to bank accounts in Türkiye, Korkmaz absconded. There, in Türkiye, Korkmaz spent the next 18 months before ultimately returning to the United States, where he was arrested in June of 2025

The Defendant was found guilty and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.