Thread: PA: Chinese national charged with hiring, housing IAs

Chinese national charged with hiring, housing illegal workers
U.S. seizes businessman's assets
Friday, February 22, 2008
By Torsten Ove, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Federal prosecutors Wednesday filed civil forfeiture papers against several McKees Rocks companies owned by an illegal alien from China who is charged with employing other illegals to work in his warehouse and deliver food to Chinese restaurants throughout the region.

The U.S. attorney's office moved to forfeit nearly $400,000, a Mercedes- Benz, computers and other property seized by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in raids last fall at New Chinatown Trading on Island Avenue.

The company is owned by Bao Ping Zheng, 39, of Ohio Township, a Chinese national who was charged last month in federal court with knowingly hiring other illegals from a New York agency to work in his warehouse and for a related company, NBC Trucking.

A third firm, New Chinatown Realty, is housed in the same building at 1300 Island Ave.

Agents said Mr. Zheng admitted that he hired illegals and paid them cash without reporting their income.

The president of New Chinatown, identified in state Corporation Bureau records and federal court documents as Song Zhong Chen, is also under investigation but has not been charged.

According to court filings, immigration and U.S. Department of Labor agents conducted their first search warrant at the company Sept. 27 and seized $138,000, records and computer equipment.

During the raid, agents discovered several illegal aliens living in the warehouse, including Guang Long Zhang, whom they found sleeping in an old office that had been converted into a bedroom for him and three other men. He said he had worked for Mr. Zheng for five years, although state employment records made no mention of him or the other workers found on the premises.

On Oct. 2, agents returned and seized the Mercedes and money from several New Chinatown bank accounts maintained at Parkvale Bank.

The following month, agents interviewed Mr. Zheng, who admitted he was in the United States illegally and had hired the aliens because he couldn't find enough legal workers.

According to an immigration office affidavit, he also said Allegheny County officials had cited him in 2000 for quartering his employees in his warehouse, so he put them up in houses on Raymond and Robinson streets. When his business continued to grow, however, the workers moved back into the warehouse.

Mr. Zheng, who is charged by criminal complaint, is being held in federal custody pending indictment by a grand jury later this month.

Mr. Zhang, his employee, who came to America in 2002, was scheduled to be deported to China. But immigration officials have detained him temporarily as a material witness in the case against his bosses.

A woman who answered the phone at New Chinatown yesterday said the company is still in business but no one there would comment on the case.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08053/859493-57.stm

Chinese alien gets reprieve
By Jason Cato
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, April 16, 2008

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A Chinese businessman who harbored fellow illegal immigrants in Stowe was freed from federal custody Tuesday after reaching a deal with prosecutors that will allow him to remain in the country for at least two years, his lawyer said in court filings.

Bao Ping Zheng, 39, who entered the country illegally, was arrested in September when immigration agents raided his Chinese restaurant business and found illegal Chinese workers.

Zheng, of Ohio Township, pleaded guilty to one count of harboring an illegal alien, and U.S. District Judge Gustave Diamond sentenced him to time served. Zheng faced six months to a year in prison. Diamond said the Justice Department could seek to deport Zheng in the future.

Defense attorney Martin Dietz said in court documents that prosecutors agreed to defer deportation for two years.

"There is virtually no chance that Mr. Zheng will ever engage in unlawful conduct again," Dietz wrote.

Full details of the plea agreement could not be determined because it was filed under seal.

Stephen H. Legomsky, an international law professor at Washington University in St. Louis, said he'd never heard of a two-year deferment on deportation.

"Since 1988, the United States has been dramatically giving rise to crimes that can lead to deportation, even minor crimes," he said.

Most recent proposals by federal lawmakers concerning legalizing illegal immigrants exclude people convicted of serious crimes, Legomsky said.

The government's decision allowing Zheng to stay "certainly complicates the debate," he said.

Zheng will return to his twin 15-year-old daughters and his several businesses, including New Chinatown LLC.

Authorities last year discovered several illegal immigrants living and working at Zheng's Chinese restaurant dry goods supply business, New Chinatown LLC.

"He said he could not find enough legal workers for his businesses, so he hired illegals," Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Hull said during yesterday's hearing.

Zheng told investigators he hired the workers from an employment agency in New York City, Hull said.

Prosecutors initially charged Zheng in January with harboring seven illegal workers from April 2005 to September 2007. They said he paid those workers in cash, fed them and provided housing in two McKees Rocks residences he owns or in a warehouse converted into living quarters.

During the raid, agents discovered Guang Long Zhang -- the only illegal immigrant named in the original charges -- sleeping in a warehouse office converted into a bedroom for four people. Hull said Zhang told authorities he'd worked illegally at New Chinatown for five years, loading and unloading delivery trucks.

Agents seized more than $400,000 in cash, a Mercedes-Benz and computer equipment from Zheng. Court documents show the government is keeping $260,000. It is unclear what will be done with the rest.

Zheng has been in the United States since 1993.

Pennsylvania records, filed from 2000-03, list Zheng as president of New Chinatown Inc., located at 1300 Island Ave. The businesses listed at that address include New Chinatown Realty LLC, New Chinatown Trading LLC and New Chinatown LLC.

Real estate records show Zheng owns nearly $1 million worth of property in Allegheny County. Federal law does not bar illegal immigrants from owning property or businesses.

Jason Cato can be reached at jcato@tribweb.com or 412-320-7840.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsbu ... 62567.html

A two year reprieve?!?! Why wasn't he deported?? His assets should have been seized completely and he deported.

Illegal aliens should not be allowed to obtain mortgages, business loans nor own property.

The is BS of the highest order!