Former county official sentenced to prison for embezzlement

After more than 20 years of working for the government and embezzling nearly $7 million in county funds, Byung Il “Peter” Bang has been sentenced to four years in prison. This illegal activity, used to feed his gambling addiction, is the largest theft ever in Montgomery County.

Following a hearing that lasted more than two hours, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, after taking into account Bang’s family and his efforts to seek help for his gambling addiction, sentenced Bang to four years in prison and ordered him to reimburse the county $6.7 million and the IRS $2.3 million.

Bang, a 59-year-old Germantown resident, was the ­second-in-command at the county’s Economic Development Department and was in charge of promoting the development of new businesses and keeping existing ones alive.

After Montgomery County entered business with South Korea’s Chungcheongbuk-Do province, Bang created a fake company with a similar name, Chung­buk Incubator Fund LLC. He then proceeded to redirect county money into multiple bank accounts that were tied back to him. Using the money, Bang gambled at multiple casinos all over the country.

From 2010 to 2016, Bang ordered the county Finance Department to send $5.4 million to the bank accounts he set up. He also received $1.2 million from Maryland Economic Development Corporation and transferred more than $43,000 in rent payments from the Conference and Visitors Bureau of Montgomery County to his shell company. A county audit released in December stated how there was no segregation of duties within the Economic Development Department, cultivating an environment in which Bang could write checks with little to no supervision.

The scheme was discovered by the Internal Revenue Service, which began its investigation on Bang once he refused to explain how he obtained cashier’s checks with large sums of money when gambling.

On November 16, he pleaded guilty to wire and tax fraud charges in federal court. Bang also pleaded guilty to the state charges of theft scheme more than $10,000 and misconduct in office. According to a spokesperson for the state’s attorney office, he is scheduled for a separate hearing on March 7.

Since the news of Bang’s embezzlement, Montgomery County officials have promised to increase transparency and supervision in the county’s government. The controls in the county have also since been enhanced, with the implementation of a new system for reviewing agreements, such as forensic tests, in an effort to prevent a situation like this from ever occurring again.

Article by MoCo Student staff writer Katherine Mahoney of Sherwood High School.