New Yorkers Sherry Li and Lianbo Wang charged with funnelling Chinese investors' money to Donald Trump campaign
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.
More than 150 foreign nationals had invested at least US$27 million in the scheme as of this month, prosecutors said.
The two are also accused of acting as "straw donors" for foreign nationals to illegally contribute to US political campaigns. In 2017, Li and Wang charged 12 people from China and Singapore US$93,000 each to attend a fundraiser for Trump, who was president at the time.
At the event - which was organised by Trump Victory, a fundraising committee established with the Republican National Committee - Li and Wang submitted an illegal contribution of US$600,000, prosecutors said.
Later, the Justice Department said, the two used a photograph of Li with the president and Melania Trump to further defraud investors.
This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2022 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
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