{"id":23101,"date":"2020-06-15T14:22:08","date_gmt":"2020-06-15T18:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/?p=23101"},"modified":"2020-06-15T14:22:12","modified_gmt":"2020-06-15T18:22:12","slug":"investor-visa-program-fraud-china-immigrationreform-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2020\/06\/15\/investor-visa-program-fraud-china-immigrationreform-com\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese \u2018Kleptocrats\u2019 Face Prison For Investor-Visa Scam"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>As if the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2019\/04\/17\/the-eb-5-investor-visa-program-deserves-to-die-now-immigrationreform-com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">fraud-ridden EB-5 cash-for-visas program<\/a> didn\u2019t have enough bad publicity, now comes a couple of Chinese nationals who, according to government investigators:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Engaged in a phony marriage scheme to obtain U.S. visas<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Embezzled $2.2 million from a grain storehouse in China (The Chinese government puts the figure at $11 million.)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Laundered money through several foreign accounts to buy personal property and real estate<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Amidst all their illicit wheeling and dealing, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ice.gov\/news\/releases\/former-chinese-official-extradited-us-face-charges-laundering-millions-dollars-stolen\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">Shilan Zhao and Jianjun Qiao<\/a> apparently did not create a single U.S. job \u2013 which is the foundational purpose for issuing EB-5 foreign-investor visas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOne aspect of the EB-5 program that has not received much attention is its potential for abuse by kleptocrats or other fraud fugitives overseas to seek a safe harbor in the United States,\u201d noted <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/roncheng\/2017\/05\/30\/the-eb-5-program-and-chinas-fugitives\/#197e20af12c7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">Ron Cheng<\/a>, a former federal prosecutor who worked on the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Federal prosecutors, who had been trailing Qiao for six years, caught a break last month when he was extradited from Sweden, where he was living under a different name. Adding to the international intrigue, Qiao had become a citizen of the Caribbean nation of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.seattletimes.com\/business\/local-business\/man-with-ties-to-seattle-area-extradited-to-u-s-to-face-money-laundering-charges\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">St. Kitts and Nevis<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Zhao \u2013 who resided stateside in the Seattle suburb of Newcastle, while tending other properties in Southern California and New York &#8212; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ice.gov\/news\/releases\/former-wife-fugitive-chinese-official-pleads-guilty-conspiring-commit-immigration\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">pleaded guilty\u00a0<\/a>in 2017 to conspiring with her ex-husband to falsely claim they were still married, and lying about the source of her funds. Agreeing to forfeit her real-estate holdings, Zhao faces up to five years in prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\njet-setting Qiao pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit immigration fraud,\ninternational transport of stolen money, conspiracy to commit money laundering,\nand three counts of engaging in financial transactions in criminally derived\nproperty.\nScheduled for trial on July 28, he could face more than 50 years in prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cheng\ncalled Zhao\u2019s and Qiao\u2019s scheme a new twist\non \u201cimmigration fraud that often makes up an integral part of kleptocratic\nbehavior.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn earlier cases, the immigration fraud\nvehicle might have been marriage fraud, through a U.S. citizen willing to take\na payment to \u2018marry\u2019 the fugitive.&nbsp;With EB-5 as the vehicle, the\ndifficulty of verifying the legitimate origin of the investment from overseas\ncreates new challenges to detect the fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Looks like the fraud detectors landed a big one here. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As if the fraud-ridden EB-5 cash-for-visas program didn\u2019t have enough bad publicity, now comes a couple of Chinese nationals who, according to government investigators: Engaged in a phony marriage scheme to obtain U.S. visas Embezzled $2.2 million from a grain storehouse in China (The Chinese government puts the figure at $11 million.) Laundered money through<\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2020\/06\/15\/investor-visa-program-fraud-china-immigrationreform-com\/\" title=\"Read More\">Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":22682,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[8562],"tags":[4573,445,1524,4367],"yst_prominent_words":[8969,4363,3268,8964,2695,1943,2697,1983,8971,1963,5242,3208,8967,3910,8970,1944,8965,8968,1939,8966],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23101"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23101"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23102,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23101\/revisions\/23102"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23101"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=23101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}