A Koreatown rideshare driver’s return from a trip to Japan ended in handcuffs at San Francisco International Airport on Tuesday, with federal prosecutors accusing him of engineering a COVID-era loan scam that nearly hit the $2 million mark. According to an indictment unsealed this week, the defendant allegedly set up a sham company called Premier Republic, sent forged payroll and tax records to a lender, and then funneled the loan proceeds into cryptocurrency. Federal agents say they have already seized related digital assets as the case moves through court.
Indictment and arrest
As reported by MyNewsLA, prosecutors identify the defendant as 34-year-old Bruce Choi, who was taken into custody at SFO and is now charged in Los Angeles federal court with four counts of wire fraud affecting a financial institution and one count of transactional money laundering. The indictment, originally filed in October 2025 and only recently unsealed, alleges Choi tried to secure a nearly $2 million Paycheck Protection Program loan by falsely claiming Premier Republic was already up and running and paying employees in early 2020. Prosecutors say each wire fraud count carries a statutory maximum sentence of up to 30 years in prison, while the money laundering charge carries up to 10 years.
Court filings show seizure and litigation over crypto
Court dockets on Justia show that Choi has filed petitions demanding the return of seized property and that federal authorities executed warrants to take control of nearly 40 bitcoins along with other digital assets tied to the investigation. The public record includes a string of motions and court orders from mid-2025, reflecting Choi’s efforts to push back against the government’s restraint of cryptocurrency allegedly connected to the scheme.
Loan records back up fraud allegations
Records from ProPublica's Tracking PPP database list a Premier Republic loan for $1,995,000 approved on May 4, 2020, a figure that lines up with the indictment’s account. Court papers and subsequent reporting further allege that Choi supported the loan application with a falsified 2019 individual tax return claiming nearly $11.8 million in gross receipts and later wired a portion of the loan proceeds to a Kraken cryptocurrency exchange account, according to MyNewsLA.
Penalties and wider enforcement in L.A.
The case lands amid a broader pandemic-relief fraud crackdown in the Central District of California. The U.S. Attorney’s Office previously announced a multi-defendant sweep in 2025, alleging that more than $25 million in COVID-19 relief and small-business loans were fraudulently obtained in similar schemes, underscoring how aggressively federal prosecutors in the region are still chasing down PPP-era cases (U.S. Attorney’s Office). Authorities say their investigation in Choi’s case is ongoing, and he remains presumed innocent unless and until he is proven guilty in court.
