A Brooklyn Center woman charged with duping several members of the Hmong community into investing in a nonexistent ginseng farm was arrested last month in Georgia after eluding authorities for more than two years.
Mai Vu Vang, 51, was arrested on March 18 and extradited to Minnesota over the weekend. She is scheduled to make her first court appearance Monday afternoon.
Prosecutors will request $500,000 bail for Vang, said a news release from the Hennepin County Attorney's Office.
Vang was charged in 2017 in Hennepin County District Court with six counts of theft by swindle, and allegedly racked up more than a million dollars in expenses at Mystic Lake Casino.
The county attorney's office said the Minnesota Commerce Fraud Bureau and Fridley police were investigating Vang when she moved to Georgia in 2017.
Georgia police tried unsuccessfully "numerous times" to contact Vang on behalf of Minnesota authorities. She was arrested in March on a traffic stop.
Minnesota authorities allege that between 2012 and 2014, Vang persuaded nine Minnesota victims to give her more than $450,000 for a purported farm near Wausau, Wis.
A couple who knew Vang from church gave her their life savings, the county attorney's office said.
Investigators discovered that in those two years, Vang spent a growing amount of money at Mystic Lake Casino buying chips or playing slot machines, eventually totaling more than a million dollars.
She also allegedly spent more than $27,000 at Running Aces Harness Park in 2014, authorities said.
Chao Xiong • 612-270-4708
