Former Economic Development Officer Pleads Guilty to Embezzling Nearly $7 million in County Funds

Peter Bang, former COO of the Montgomery County Office of Economic Development, created a shadow company that was supposed to grow small businesses
Byung Il “Peter” Bang, a Montgomery County government employee for 20 years, pled guilty Friday in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt to embezzling nearly $7 million in county funds dedicated to helping small businesses, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

According to court filings obtained by The Washington Post, Bang was the chief operating officer for the Montgomery County Office of Economic Development between 2010 and 2016. He had been a Montgomery County employee from 1997 until May of 2017.

According to The Post, Bang was in charge of disbursing county funds to small businesses, helping them negotiate affordable rent and teaching business skills to the staff of the companies. Federal authorities say Bang diverted money into four South Korean bank accounts that contained his home address, which he had set up after Montgomery County entered into an agreement with South Korea to set up a small business incubator fund called Chungbuk Incubator Fund LLC.

In 2016, the Department of Economic Development was privatized and Bang was transferred to the county’s finance department.

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