December 06, 2002, 10:36 AM — The District Attorney of the state of California has charged a 27-year old man with grand theft following an alleged fraud on the online eBay Inc. auction house which caught out 170 customers, the District Attorney's office said in a statement Wednesday.
Chris Chong Kim was charged on four counts of grand theft and 26 counts of holding a mock auction. The criminal complaint alleges a loss of US$453,000 to 26 customers, eBay and Bank of America, according to the statement.
Kim had been selling desktop computers and laptops from his business site on eBay for two years, but allegedly stopped shipments in April while continuing to accept money on eBay.
Around 170 customers complained to the Internet Fraud Complaint Center and the case was then investigated by the Southern California High Tech Task Force. Kim's site, called Calvin Auctions, was closed in July.
Kim was arrested Tuesday and is being held on $400,000 bail. If convicted, he faces up to 24 years in jail, according to the statement.
