WPBN: Authorities said Monday that a man from Southern California was sentenced to more than three years in prison for running a “birth tourism” scheme in which wealthy Chinese pregnant women paid thousands of dollars to travel to the United States and give birth in order for the babies to become citizens of the United States.
After a four-day trial, Michael Wei Yueh Liu, 59, of Rancho Cucamonga, just east of Los Angeles, was punished by a federal judge, according to the Justice Department.
Both Liu and Jing Dong, 47, of Rancho Cucamonga, were found guilty of 10 charges of international money laundering and one count of conspiracy. Later, Dong will receive his sentence.
According to the Justice Department, Liu and Dong ran “USA Happy Babby Inc.” from January 2012 to March 2015, which advertised the advantages of having a child in the United States as opposed to China. According to court filings, the alleged incentives included “better air,” greater educational resources, food safety, and political stability.
For each client, the duo charged between $200,000 and $40,000. Prosecutors alleged VIP clients paid up to $100,000.
According to authorities, Liu and Dong would hire Chinese agents to find pregnant Chinese women and train them for interviews at the U.S. embassy in China.
According to authorities, their visa applications misrepresented that the women would be in the country for days or weeks rather than months. According to investigators, they also gave false information about their intended lodging in the United States.
In general, the visa applications submitted by customers of the defendant USA HAPPY BABY would falsely state that the purpose of the trip to the United States was for tourism, that the length of the stay would be between eight and fourteen days, and that the customers would be staying in Hawaii, New York, or Los Angeles.
However, the truth and the fact is that those customers were coming to the United States to give birth, the length of their stays would be three months, and they would be staying in Rancho Cucamonga, California, or Irvine, California, according to the documents filed in the court.
In addition, it was recommended to the women that they fly to specific ports of entry in the United States, where it was believed that they would be subjected to less scrutiny from customs officers. As an illustration, one could take a flight to Hawaii before travelling to Los Angeles.
The women were also instructed on how to respond to the inquiries that were posed by the customs officers, that they should wear clothes that was loose-fitting, and that they should choose specific lines at customs that they considered to be less stringent.
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According to the police, Liu and Dong rented flats in Orange and San Bernardino counties to the ladies in the names of people who were not going to occupy the units. This was done in order to provide housing for the women.
According to the prosecution, the two individuals made a total of several million dollars throughout the course of the conspiracy.
