Cancer $$ scam

‘Fake charity’ bust

A former Wall Street crook with ties to the Mafia allegedly set up two dozen fake cancer charities across the country and scammed donors out of more than $150,000, according to court records.

Starting in 2014, Ian Hosang, 63, of Staten Island, allegedly began establishing fake nonprofits with legitimate-sounding names including “American Cancer Society for Children” and “United Way of New York Inc.,” but donations never went to medical research or community outreach, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.

Instead, he “lined his own pockets,” DA Eric Gonzalez alleged in a press release statement.

Hosang was arrested Monday and arraigned in Brooklyn Supreme Court where he was charged with 12 counts of grand larceny, three counts of identity theft and one count of scheme to defraud. He was released without bail and is due back in court June 22.

Previous run-ins with the law he’s had for charity schemes resulted in slaps on the wrists, compared to the seven years in prison he faces if convicted in New York, according to reports.

In 2018, North Dakota and Washington dissolved Hosang’s phony charities in their respective states and barred him from establishing any more, SILive reported. Three years later, the Michigan attorney general dissolved 10 of his entities, the Mining Journal reported.

Whiff of Wall Street

Prior to the charity scams, Hosang was a Jordan Belfort wannabe.

A 1997 complaint filed by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn alleged that Hosang was the ringleader of a pump-and-dump stock scheme, and one of his partners, Frank Mancini, was connected with the Gambino crime family, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Hosang pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy and money laundering charges in 1999, the New York Times reported. He served 12 years in federal prison, SILive reported.

Calls to numbers associated with Hosang went unanswered Friday, and his lawyer offered no comment.