2 San Bernardino County residents convicted in birth tourism scheme
After a four-day trial, a jury on Friday found two San Bernardino County residents guilty of operating a birth tourism scheme.
The Department of Justice said Michael Wei Yueh Liu, 59, and Jing Dong, 47, charged Chinese clients tens of thousands of dollars in exchange for help getting birthright U.S. citizenship for their children.
The jury found them guilty of one count of conspiracy and 10 counts of international money laundering. The pair faces a maximum sentence of 205 years in federal prison.
Between January 2012 and March 2015, Liu and Dong operated a so-called maternity house in Rancho Cucamonga, providing services and short-term housing to pregnant women from China. The clients traveled to the U.S. and stayed in apartment units rented by Liu and Dong until a little after the birth. The women would return to China about a month or two after giving birth.
Liu and Dong guided their clients through the visa application process and gave the women tips on hiding their pregnancies from immigration authorities, such as wearing loose-fitting clothing.
Prosecutors said the pair knew or "deliberately avoided learning" that their customers lied on their applications.
The DOJ said the clients would typically say they were going to the U.S. for tourism and claimed they would only be in the country for a few days or weeks rather than the months-long stays they would have at the apartments Liu and Dong rented.
The pair also received money from overseas assets and used that money to promote their scheme.