phillyburbs.com
By Matt Chiappardi Staff writer
Updated: 10:50 pm, Wed Jan 25, 2012.

The restaurant owner from Evesham who pleaded guilty in 2010 to his role in a seven-year immigration fraud scheme was sentenced Wednesday to three years of probation, according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office spokeswoman.

Hee Chan Bang, 57, also was sentenced to 100 hours of community service and ordered to pay $3,200 in fines in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia.

Bang owns the Han Chon restaurant in Philadelphia and was accused, along with two other business owners, of making it appear that several Korean immigrants worked for him between 2001 and 2008.

Instead, he was taking bribes and kickbacks from co-defendant Michael Choi, an attorney who helped fast-track authorization for the immigrants to enter and work in the United States, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Choi, 56, of Huntington Valley, Pa., who would accept payments as high as $60,000 from his clients, was convicted in August of conspiring to violate federal immigration laws, five counts of making false statements to the government, and two counts of filing false tax returns.

Choi, a principal in the law firm Choi and Associates, was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison in December and ordered to pay $162,000 in fines and restitution.

During the trial, Bang testified that Choi provided him with cash and legal services in exchange for his signing a petition falsely stating that he intended to employ the attorney’s clients, authorities said.

The trial evidence also included recorded conversations between Choi and a fourth business owner, who was working undercover for the FBI.

Bang’s two other co-defendants — Sung Mahn Gang, 60, of Ardmore Pa., who owns the Ginza restaurant in Narberth, Pa., and Keun S. Hwang, 48, of Jenkintown, Pa., who owns the Musictown karaoke bar in Philadelphia — also have pleaded guilty, authorities said.

They are scheduled for sentencing later this winter.

Matt Chiappardi: 609-871-8054 ; email: mchiappardi@phillyBurbs.com;

Evesham restaurateur gets probation, community service for role in immigration fraud scheme - phillyBurbs.com : Burlington County Times: evesham, crime, immigration fraud, hee chan bang, philadelphia