A Southern California man was sentenced Monday to more than three years in prison for operating a "birth tourism" scheme where affluent pregnant Chinese women paid thousands of dollars to travel and give birth in the United States, so the infants could obtain American citizenship, authorities said Monday.
A federal judge sentenced Michael Wei Yueh Liu, 59, of Rancho Cucamonga, just east of Los Angeles, following a four-day trial, the Justice Department said.
Liu and Jing Dong, 47, also of Rancho Cucamonga, were each convicted of one count of conspiracy and 10 counts of international money laundering. Dong will be sentenced later.
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From January 2012 to March 2015, Liu and Dong operated "USA Happy Babby Inc." which promoted the benefits of giving birth to a child in the U.S. rather than China, the Justice Department said. The supposed incentives included "better air," superior educational resources, food safety and political stability, according to court documents.
The pair charged between $20000 and $40,000 for each client. VIP clients paid upwards of $100,000, prosecutors said.
Liu and Dong would pay agents in China to recruit pregnant Chinese women and to coach them on how to pass U.S. consulate interviews in China, prosecutors said.
Their visa applications falsely stated the women would be staying in the U.S. for a period of days or weeks, not months, authorities said. They also misrepresented where they would be staying in the U.S., authorities said.
"Generally, defendant USA HAPPY BABY's customers' visa applications would falsely state that the purpose of the trip to the United States was for tourism, the length of the stay was eight to 14 days, and the customers would be staying in Hawaii, New York, or Los Angeles, when in truth and in fact, those customers were coming to the United States to give birth, the length of their stays was 3 months, and they would be staying in Rancho Cucamonga, California, or Irvine, California," court documents state.
The women were also advised to fly to certain ports of entry where it was believed they would come under less scrutiny from U.S. customs officials. Examples included flying to Hawaii before flying to Los Angeles.
The women were also told to wear loose-fitting clothing and to favor certain lines at customs that they perceived to be less strict, and on how to answer the customs officials’ questions.
To accommodate the women, Liu and Dong leased apartments in Orange and San Bernardino counties to the women under names of people who were not going to occupy the units, authorities said.
Over the course of the scheme, the pair made several million dollars, prosecutors said.
