Couple Sentenced for Meals Program Fraud

A Palos Verdes couple were sentenced to federal prison terms Friday for defrauding a government meals program.

Wan Hee Moon, a state employee who oversaw the program in Southern California, was sentenced to three years, and her husband, Kyung Ho Moon, was sentenced to two years, said David Dickson, special agent in the inspector general’s office of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

In addition, the Moons, who were sentenced in U.S. District Court in Sacramento, were ordered to pay the government $2.3 million in restitution. They have already forfeited four residential properties they owned, including their 5,000-square-foot Palos Verdes home.

The two pleaded guilty in August to one count each of mail fraud and aiding and abetting a scheme to defraud. They had been charged with using an elaborate web of aliases and bogus claims to skim administrative funds from a government meals program serving low-income children in day care.