A Chinese man living in California was sentenced on July 29 to two years and three months in prison and ordered to pay $181,000 in restitution after defrauding a 73-year-old Joliet resident out of nearly $200,000, Acting U.S. Attorney Mark Steger Smith said.
Wei Jia Luo, 42, pleaded guilty in March to one count of wire fraud. After completing his prison sentence, he will be deported back to China. U.S. District Judge Susan P. Watters presided over the case.
According to court documents, Luo ran an internet scam that resulted in the theft of $182,000 from the victim. The investigation began when the Joliet man contacted the Carbon County Sheriff’s Office on May 8, 2024, reporting that he had been scammed after receiving a pop-up window on his computer instructing him to contact Microsoft. Through subsequent messages, he was led to believe he was “out of compliance” with the Federal Trade Commission and needed to provide large sums of money via a bank courier at the Edgar Post Office.
The victim withdrew $76,000 from various accounts and met a person named “Ethan,” described as an Asian man wearing sunglasses and a COVID mask at the Edgar Bar on April 6, 2024. He handed over the money before being contacted again for additional payments—$53,000 on April 11 and another $50,000 plus gift cards totaling $5,000 on May 1—resulting in total losses of $182,000.
Investigators used rental car records and flight data to identify Ethan as Wei Jia Luo by matching surveillance footage with his image. Luo was arrested on July 31, 2025, in Arizona carrying five fake Texas driver’s licenses, a Chinese passport under another name but with his photo, multiple gift cards and more than $10,000 cash.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Colin Rubich prosecuted the case; it was investigated by the FBI and Carbon County Sheriff’s Office. The U.S. Attorney for the District of Montana focuses on protecting citizens through ethical enforcement of federal laws across its offices located in Billings, Great Falls, Helena and Missoula; it is part of the Department of Justice under appointment by the Attorney General, according to its official website.