Father-Daughter Duo Accused of EB-5 Visa Fraud

[Dashinka 25,898]

A father and daughter duo allegedly helped obtain visas for Chinese nationals, including people on that country’s “100 Most Wanted” fugitive list, by defrauding a U.S. program that awards visas to wealthy foreigners who invest in American projects, according to federal court documents unsealed Wednesday.

The allegations of fraud are the latest to hit the EB-5 visa program, which gives green cards to foreigners who invest $500,000 in businesses that are measured to have created 10 jobs per investor.

 

Lawyer Victoria Chan and her father, Tat Chan, allegedly raised more than $50 million from more than 100 Chinese nationals who wanted these visas, according to a detailed affidavit for a search warrant filed in federal court in the Central District of California unsealed Wednesday.

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But instead of investing in U.S. businesses, the duo allegedly pocketed millions and gave the money back to some of these investors.

Ms. Chan didn’t return calls and texts seeking comment. Her father couldn't be reached for comment.

Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and of Homeland Security Investigations, the investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security, raided two residences and a business office outside Los Angeles on Wednesday. A spokeswoman said the agencies weren’t seeking to make arrests immediately.

EB-5 fraud cases have popped up in Vermont and South Dakota in recent years.

Changes to the program have been proposed by the Department of Homeland Security that would increase the investment requirement and make sure the money reaches its intended target under the law: poor rural and urban areas.

At a hearing last month on the proposals, House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R., Va.,) said the visa program is in “desperate need of reform.”

“While I support the overall goal of the EB-5 investor visa program, it is currently riddled with fraud and abuse and has strayed away from the program Congress envisioned when it created the program decades ago,” he said.

Past reform measures proposed in Congress have stalled amid a fight between major urban real-estate developers and rural lawmakers.

One issue with the program is investors tend to care far more about getting the green card than the return on their investment, so they tend not to scrutinize investments as closely as would a typical, local investor, EB-5 professionals say.

A spokesman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which runs the program, declined to comment on the California investigation, but said the agency has taken steps to “strengthen the integrity” of the program. These include conducting fraud-risk assessments and a new audit program.

California investigators believe that many of the investors were complicit in the fraud, but some may have been duped, believing they were investing in legitimate projects, according to a person familiar with the investigation.

The Chans allegedly claimed that the goal of the venture was to develop hotel and retail real-estate projects. But none of those projects ever came to fruition, according to the affidavit.

 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/father-daughter-duo-accused-of-eb-5-visa-fraud-1491435354?cx_campaign=poptart&mod=cx_poptart#cxrecs_s

 

 

[TBoneTX 47,548]

At least the Feds claim to be taking steps.

Gotta watch what one invests in.

[Cyberfx1024 7,980]

Sadly this is pretty well known in my neck of the woods in the San Gabriel Valley which has turned in to a huge Chinatown. The Chinese come in by the plane load on either tourist visas, investment visas, student visas and don't leave. If they do leave it is after they used their savings to buy a house here at inflated prices which decreases inventory, raises housing prices, and usually leave the house vacant for X amount of months a year. All the while not maintaining the house or the property. It is really sad because it leaves people like myself out of the market unless we want to commute an hour each way to work or be stuck paying  at least $700k for a decent house.

 

All of this is because they don't see any future in China so they either want to live here , have a child here, or have all of their assets tied up into a house here.