Thread: NYC woman gets 35 years for human smuggling

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/nation/14115683.htm

Posted on Thu, Mar. 16, 2006

NYC woman gets 35 years for human smuggling

DAVID B. CARUSO
Associated Press

NEW YORK - A Chinatown businesswoman was sentenced to 35 years in prison Thursday for immigrant smuggling, including a 1993 voyage that ended in the deaths of 10 Chinese in the waters off New York City.

Cheng Chui Ping, 57, pleaded for more than an hour for leniency, saying she was a hardworking immigrant who loved America and had been terrorized by Chinatown gangs.

U.S. District Judge Michael Mukasey listened patiently, then dismissed the speech as "simply incredible" and gave Cheng the maximum.

He said evidence at the trial had shown conclusively that she was a leader in a ring that took millions of dollars from illegal immigrants, transported them in inhumane and dangerous conditions, and used violent gangsters to collect debts.

Among the decrepit cargo ships that carried Cheng's human cargo was the Golden Venture, a hulk that ran aground near Queens. Ten immigrants died trying to swim to shore.

Prosecutors said Cheng financed that voyage, as well as a deadly 1998 trip in which a ship capsized off Guatemala, killing 14 people.

Cheng was arrested in Hong Kong in 2000 after six years as a fugitive.

http://www.wnbc.com/news/8055012/detail.html

'Big Sister Ping' Sentenced To 35 Years

POSTED: 7:30 am EST March 16, 2006
UPDATED: 7:02 pm EST March 16, 2006

NEW YORK -- A Chinatown businesswoman who prosecutors described as one of the biggest human smugglers of all time was sentenced Thursday to 35 years in prison for her role in schemes to transport illegal immigrants, including the doomed Golden Venture voyage in 1993.

Cheng Chui Ping, 57, pleaded for more than an hour for a lenient sentence, saying she was but a simple, hardworking immigrant who loved America and had been terrorized by Chinatown gangs.

U.S. District Judge Michael Mukasey listened patiently, then dismissed the speech as "simply incredible" and gave Cheng the maximum penalty allowed by law.

Evidence at the trial, he said, had shown conclusively that she was a leader in a ring that took millions of dollars from hopeful immigrants, transported them in inhumane and dangerous conditions, and used violent gangsters to collect debts and ransom.

Cheng, more widely known by her nickname, "Sister Ping," did not react visibly to the sentence, but smiled and waved at relatives in the courtroom as she was led away.

Among the decrepit cargo ships that carried Cheng's human cargo was the Golden Venture, a failing hulk that ran aground near Queens. Ten immigrants died trying to swim to shore.

Prosecutors said Cheng financed that voyage, as well as a deadly 1998 trip in which a ship capsized off the coast of Guatemala, killing 14 people.

"Sister Ping was responsible for those deaths," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Leslie Brown.

Cheng's attorney, Lawrence Hochheiser, maintained at the sentencing hearing that her conviction was a mistake, and that her role in the Golden Venture was limited to lending money to the people who did the actual smuggling.

Hochheiser also assailed the relatively light sentences given to the government's star witnesses: admitted gangsters and multiple murderers who fingered Cheng in return for leniency.

One of those witnesses acknowledged killing eight people. Another admitted murdering seven. Each will likely serve fewer than 12 years in prison, Hochheiser said.

"It would just seem unseemly ... that she would receive more time than the murderers who testified against her, "Hochheiser said. "I think she's a better person than they are. I think her crimes have less enormity than theirs did."

Asked whether she had anything to say before the sentence was rendered, Cheng rose and gave a rambling account of her life, from her decision to come to the U.S. in 1981 to her departure from the country in 1994.

During that time, she claimed, she operated a clothing store and a restaurant, and had no interest in dealing with "snakeheads," the Chinatown term for human smugglers.

"Everybody can tell you that Sister Ping was working in the store every day," she insisted, speaking through a translator.

Cheng, who was arrested in Hong Kong in 2000 following six years as a fugitive, is appealing her conviction. One charge is still pending against her -- an allegation that her smuggling operation took hostages for ransom. A jury couldn't decide last year whether she was guilty of the charge. A date for a retrial has yet to be set.