An 80-year-old Honolulu man was charged by federal agents yesterday with operating several different fraud schemes that targeted Hawai'i banks and a local investor.

Winfred H. Wong allegedly defrauded an acquaintance, Maria Ching, of more than $200,000 by falsely promising 15 to 20 percent short-term interest earnings on loans she made to him, according to records in federal and state court.

He did not pay the interest or repay the principal, according to court allegations.

A civil suit filed earlier by Ching against Wong is pending in state court.

In the criminal complaint, U.S. Secret Service Agent Chiko Hoge said Wong supplied false financial and personal information to Bank of Hawaii and American Savings Bank to obtain loans from the institutions.

In 2005, Hoge alleged, Wong gave Bank of Hawaii phony tax returns that showed he had income of more than $1 million per year in 2003 and 2004, when in fact it was less than $2,000 per year. He also told the bank that his spouse, Emily, was earning $230,000 per year, but Emily Wong had died in 2001, according to the federal government.

Bank of Hawaii granted Wong two unsecured loans totalling $250,000 in 2006, the criminal complaint said.

In 2005, Wong falsely told American Savings Bank that he had a personal net worth of $39 million and claimed that he and his wife had monthly gross earnings of $96,000, according to Hoge's affidavit.

The bank signed an "equity powerline" loan agreement with Wong that allowed him to borrow up to $480,000, the complaint alleged.

Other civil suits alleging fraud have been filed against Wong in state court in the past three years.

In one case, attorneys for the Stephen Sawyer/Harriet Bouslog trust won a default judgment last year against Wong after he allegedly failed to repay a $550,000 investment.

According to documents filed in that suit, Wong allegedly told Stephen Sawyer a story similar to the one he told to Maria Ching.

He claimed that some $20 million in funds from South Africa held on deposit in a London Bank would be released to him soon and that he would repay the $550,000 investment with an $825,000 payment in no more than three months.

In another case, former invest-or James Napier won a $203,000 judgment against Wong last year. In that case, Wong said that funds he had expected to be released to him to repay Napier had been "unexpectedly delayed." He said he couldn't reveal any more because a "foreign central reserve bank and intelligence agencies" were involved in the transaction.