Saturday, January 16, 2010

Woman in SS cards scam gets time-served prison sentence

By Ferdie de la Torre
Reporter

The federal court imposed yesterday a time-served prison sentence on a woman who was arrested for buying U.S. Social Security account cards that were then issued to garment factory workers on Saipan.

Yingzi Xu, 26, a Chinese national, has been detained for a total of 118 days already. This means she would no longer serve further jail time.

However, U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Alex R. Munson placed Xu on two years of supervised release.

Munson ordered her to be delivered to the U.S. Immigration for deportation.

The judge also required Xu to immediately pay a $100 court assessment fee.

Munson said the sentence is appropriate as the defendant has no criminal history, has accepted her conduct, and immediately cooperated with the authorities in the investigation.

“The court is aware that the defendant desires to go home to China,â€