A purported senior living community developer who pleaded guilty to a multimillion dollar green card fraud scheme has been sentenced one day in prison and 120 hours of community service.
Victoria Chan of California pleaded guilty in 2018 to conspiracy to commit visa fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and international money laundering for exploiting the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program. The program, administered by U.S. Citizenship and Immiration Services, provides permanent green cards to foreigners in exchange for their investing at least $500,000 in a U.S. business visa program that creates at least 10 new American jobs.
From 2008 to 2017, Chan and her father, Tat Chan, a foreign national who has not been charged, used their company, California Investment Immigration Fund LLC, to convince 100 foreign Chinese nationals — some on China’s Most Wanted list — to invest more than $50 million in exchange for green cards, according to the federal government.
As part of the plea agreement, Victoria Chan was ordered to pay $2.5 million in restitution and to forfeit $20 million in property bought with proceeds from the scheme.
CIIF, which shut down operations shortly after federal prosecutors filed lawsuits to seize the properties bought with proceeds from the scheme, had indicated that its EB-5 projects focused on financing and developing commercial and mixed-use real estate projects, including senior living communities and other housing, hotels, restaurants and retail.
Rather than investing the funds into American businesses or construction projects, however, prosecutors said that CIIF either refunded some of the money to investors or used the funds to buy million-dollar homes. Chan and her father reportedly submitted approximately 130 green card petitions.
Chan’s attorney told City News Service that she played a “minor role in the offense” and displayed “extraordinary remorse” for the crimes, which the attorney said were orchestrated by her father. Chan was suspended by the State Bar of California.
