Two New York residents originally from China have been arrested in a US$27 million scheme to defraud foreign donors in exchange for green cards and access to former president Donald Trump, federal prosecutors announced on Monday.
Sherry Xue Li and Lianbo "Mike" Wang, both naturalised US citizens, were charged with wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy and conspiracy to defraud the United States by obstructing the Federal Election Commission's administration of campaign finance laws in a criminal complaint unsealed in Brooklyn, New York.
Li, 50, and Wang, 45, are also charged with a decade-long scheme to defraud foreign investors to support a fictitious educational institution in Sullivan County, New York, called the Thompson Education Centre (TEC), prosecutors said.
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The two said they were also raising money to build homes and a China-themed amusement park in upstate New York, which Li called "Chinese Disneyland" and claimed would attract 1.5 million visitors a year.
Sherry Li and Lianbo Wang are seen with employees at an investment bank in Washington in August 2019. Photo: US Justice Department alt=Sherry Li and Lianbo Wang are seen with employees at an investment bank in Washington in August 2019. Photo: US Justice Department>
"It's alleged that Li and Wang defrauded their victim-investors out of millions, then used their ill-gotten gains to live luxuriously and 'rub elbows' with prominent politicians," said Thomas Fattorusso, special agent in charge of IRS criminal investigations in New York.
Victims were told that a US$500,000 "investment" would guarantee them lawful permanent residence in the United States through the EB-5 investment visa programme, prosecutors said.
The two are accused of laundering at least US$2 million in investor funds for the education centre project and an additional US$2.5 million on various personal expenses with no clear business purpose.
They are being held without bail after their first appearance at the Brooklyn Federal Court, according to Associated Press. They were not asked to enter a plea, but using an interpreter Wang said, "I did not do this thing."
As part of the scam, the two created billboards advertising the education centre and hired contractors to create architectural designs and perform minor construction to "mislead [investors] into believing the TEC project had a realistic probability of completion", the Justice Department said.