Trump was bait in alleged $27 million investment scam

In a $27 million hoax, two New York citizens were accused of promising foreign investors visas, high returns on their investments, and access to influential leaders like the then-President Donald Trump.

Sherry Xue Li and Lianbo “Mike” Wang, both of Oyster Bay, were detained on Monday and have since been charged with money-laundering and wire fraud conspiracies. Li has also been accused of conspiring to defraud the US by hindering the enforcement of federal campaign finance rules.

According to US Attorney Breon Peace in Brooklyn, the two, who have both been naturalized US citizens, persuaded their victims to engage in a number of fictitious companies, including a phony real estate venture, while contributing illegally to political campaigns.

Peace said in a statement that Li and Wang allegedly promised investors access to political people, green cards, and dividends on their money. Tens of millions of dollars were contributed by investors and straw donors who anticipated a return on their investment. However, just one of the promises—gaining access to political power—came true. We must take all necessary steps to defend our democracy and immigration systems from foreign money pollution.

The criminal complaint claims that Li, Wang, and their foreign visitors took pictures with Trump while at a fund-raiser on June 28, 2017. The 52-page criminal complaint contains a photograph Li took with Trump and his wife Melania at that occasion. The US contends that the two defendants charged 12 foreign nationals $93,000 each to attend the fund raiser and then used that money to give the group that organized the event $600,000 in illegal political campaign contributions.

The prosecution claims that the defendants conned many of their victims by promising them that a $500,000 investment would get them an unique visa that would grant them legal permanent residence in the US. Prosecutors claim that the pair raised $16.5 million in total in this manner, in addition to $11 million via a fictitious stock IPO.

As “serious” flight risks who could travel to China, which does not extradite to the US, prosecutor Josh Hafetz ordered Li and Wang to be held without bond on Monday. Li may spend 210 to 262 months in jail if found guilty, according to Hafetz, which “alone is a strong reason for Ms. Li not to return to court,” he said.

Wang groaned and responded, “I didn’t do these things,” when US Magistrate Judge Ramon Reyes questioned the defendant about his understanding of the charges leveled against him. James Roth, his attorney, promised to attempt to provide a bail package at a later time.

Nora Hirozawa, Li’s attorney, requested that her client be freed on a $500,000 bond, arguing that she wouldn’t leave for China because her father, who is elderly, and son, who is 15 years old, both reside with her at the Long Island residence.

Li’s father and her domestic partner, in contrast, weren’t “improper suretors,” according to Hafetz. According to Hafetz, Li’s scheme “paid tens of thousands of dollars on a weekly and monthly basis” to Li’s father. Hafetz added that Li’s business partner had already been found guilty of securities fraud.

Reyes stated, “I do find that Ms. Li is a high flight risk and the package given is insufficient.”

When contacted by email regarding the allegations, neither Roth nor Hirozawa responded.

Li’s property could not be used as security to post a bond, according to the prosecution, because some of the money gained from the alleged fraud was used to settle the mortgage.

Sherry Xue Li and Lianbo Wang are the defendants in US v. them; the case number is 22-mj-756 in the Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn).