Laquan "China Man" Williams was sentenced to 200 months in federal prison for bank fraud schemes that prosecutors say targeted more than $30 million.

Two hundred months is what a repeat bank fraud case looks like when the defendant does it again on supervised release. Prosecutors say agents found a full counterfeiting shop at his home, plus two loaded guns. His story is now trending online, but the paper trail is what put him away.

Laquan Williams, also known as "China Man," was sentenced Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, to 200 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York announced. Williams, 42, of Florham Park, New Jersey, pleaded guilty on Sept. 4, 2025, to participating in a conspiracy to commit bank fraud and aggravated identity theft. He was also sentenced to three years of supervised release, ordered to forfeit about $1.8 million and ordered to pay restitution, New Jersey 101.5 reported.

Prosecutors said that between 2021 and 2024 Williams orchestrated schemes that sent imposters into bank branches in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut to move money out of victims' accounts or to cash stolen U.S. Treasury checks. In one scheme, prosecutors said, one of the victims was a prominent former federal government official, and Williams tried to impersonate that person on a call to a bank using the victim's Social Security number. In another, a co-conspirator impersonated small-business owners to move funds into look-alike business accounts Williams controlled. Prosecutors said Williams also helped deposit a stolen U.S. Treasury check for about $13.9 million into an account opened at a Massachusetts bank branch.

The intended loss in the Treasury check scheme alone exceeded $30 million, and the schemes caused at least $1.8 million in actual losses to financial institutions, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. When Williams was arrested on May 23, 2024, agents searching his home and car recovered about 1,015 stolen or altered checks totaling about $3.35 million, nine stolen Treasury checks worth about $506,000, about 571 counterfeit identification cards, about 524 counterfeit credit or debit cards, more than 1,100 blank state ID cards, a hologram ID card press, and two loaded pistols, a Glock 19 and a Ruger .380, prosecutors said.

Williams was on federal supervised release at the time. In May 2018, U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl sentenced him to 64 months in prison for participating in similar bank fraud schemes, prosecutors said. "For nearly two decades, Williams has been stealing money from innocent bank customers with forged checks, counterfeit identification cards, and stolen personal identifying information," U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald said. The U.S. Secret Service and the New York City Police Department investigated the case.

The sentence follows Williams' guilty plea, and he did not go to trial. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. His case drew renewed attention on social media this week after the sentence was announced.