Prosecutors allege that Lee, from her Long Island home beginning in 2013, devised a scheme to defraud investors by persuading them to invest in a bogus plan to build a private school. Wang allegedly served as general manager of the fictitious Thompson Education Center, the complaint states, and Li and Wang allegedly raised income for their personal use, including housing, vacations, clothing, jewelry and political contributions to prominent politicians.
Prosecutors alleged that Li and Wang acted as straw donors to foreign nationals to make illegal campaign contributions to support US politicians and political committees, including Trump, and that the pair used photos they took of Trump and the former first lady Melania Trump to ask investors to contribute to their project.
CNN has reached out to representatives of Trump and the Republican National Committee for comment. “As alleged, the defendants lured their victims into investing in a fraudulent scheme aided by the misleading claim that their fictitious project had the support of prominent politicians,” United States Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement. “The defendants were able to commit this fraud by then selling access to US politicians by illegally contributing foreign money to political campaigns in their own names and bringing foreign nationals as their guests to fundraising events,” Peace added.
Prosecutors allege that Li and Wang, who are both US citizens, brought foreign nationals to fundraisers for US politicians in exchange for payments from foreign nationals that were used by Li and Wang to make political contributions with their own their names, despite multiple warnings that foreign nationals are prohibited from making political contributions. Prosecutors say Li and Wang attended a political event on June 28, 2017 that raised money for a joint fundraising committee at the Trump International Hotel in DC, where they posed for photos with Donald and Melania Trump as well as the 12 Chinese and Singapore Li and Wang arranged to attend the event. The complaint does not name the joint fundraising committee, but CNN previously reported that funds raised at the event would help fund two joint fundraising committees with the Republican National Committee: the Trump Victory Fund and the Make American Great Again Committee.
Seven of the foreign nationals who attended the event stayed at the same Washington, D.C. hotel as Wang and Li, and their bill was more than $31,000, which prosecutors allege was paid for by funds from the Thompson Education Center project that gathered by foreign investors hoping to seek residency in the US.
Prosecutors allege that bank accounts controlled by Li and Thompson Education Center entities received large foreign wire transfers that Li and Wang used to fund large political contributions required to attend the fundraiser. According to the complaint, FEC records show that the joint fundraising committee received a $270,500 contribution in Lee’s name and that “financial records reflect that this check was funded by multiple wires totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars taken from bank accounts with headquartered in Hong Kong”. A review of FEC donor data from June 2017 shows a $270,500 contribution to the Trump Victory PAC, among other contributions. The complaint also states that the joint fundraising committee received a $329,500 check shortly before the event from Wang that was “funded by the same wires from Hong Kong bank accounts” that funded Li’s check. FEC donor data shows a $329,500 contribution from Wang to the Trump Victory PAC in June 2017, among other things. Prosecutors also allege Wang made a contribution in 2016 to an unnamed congressional candidate. CNN has confirmed that FEC filings show a $1,350 contribution in Wang’s name to a New York congressional campaign in January 2016. Prosecutors allege that both Li and Wang received separate invitations to donate from the congressional candidate who It said contributions are “restricted to US citizens and green card holders.” among other requirements. It is unclear whether prosecutors allege the donation to the congressional candidate was financed with money from foreign nationals. As part of the scheme, Li and Wang allegedly solicited donations from foreign nationals by falsely promising that they would obtain legal permanent resident status as part of an investor scheme, prosecutors said.
The EB-5 visa program allows foreign investors who make at least $500,000 in investments within certain parameters, which include stimulating the economy in areas with high unemployment or rural areas and creating jobs for US workers, to apply to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for lawful conditional permanent resident status, the complaint states. However, projects seeking EB-5 investors are prohibited from guaranteeing that the investors will obtain lawful permanent resident status.
The complaint alleges the pair raised at least $27 million from more than 150 investors as part of the scheme, and $16.5 million was raised from EB-5 investors “who were promised a green card in exchange for their investment.” Prosecutors allege that to date, no EB-5 investors have received a temporary or permanent green card, and instead USCIS has rejected multiple applications for temporary green cards because it did not find Thompson Education Center’s business plan credible.
Li and Wang reportedly planned to build a cultural theme park in 2011 that they said would be a “Chinese Disneyland” in upstate New York. Li reportedly told investors the project would create 3,000 jobs.
The pair are also accused of offering for sale shares in business entities created by Li to raise funds for the training center and allegedly making false claims about the progress of one of their companies’ listing on the New York Stock Exchange. Prosecutors asked in a letter to the court that Li and Wang be released on bail only if they produce a bail package with “significant and material assets”, surrender passports, fully disclose their financial assets and holdings and adhere to strict travel restrictions their. both “significant flight hazards”.