Thread: Smuggling immigrants just a sideline, court told

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/05/23/news/smuggle.php


Smuggling immigrants just a sideline, court told
By Julia Preston The New York Times

TUESDAY, MAY 24, 2005

NEW YORK The Chinese businesswoman called Sister Ping was known around Chinatown as the person to go to for smuggling immigrants.

But according to testimony last week in her U.S. District Court trial, smuggling was but a sideline for her - a small part of a multinational underground empire that she oversaw from a humble-looking Chinatown storefront.

At the height of her power, witnesses recalled, Sister Ping, whose real name is Cheng Chui Ping, owned restaurants, a clothing store and real estate in New York's Chinatown, as well as apartments in Hong Kong and a farm in South Africa.

But her main, multimillion-dollar business, evidence disclosed, was an underground banking network that stretched from New York to Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong and even into China.

One wiretapped phone call that prosecutors played in court showed that when one of her associates lost $200,000 in a reckless night of gambling, Cheng wired $20,000 to Hong Kong on less than a day's notice so he could begin to repay his debt.

The collapse of her illegal conglomerate began on June 6, 1993, when the Golden Venture, a tramp steamer that she had helped to finance, ran aground off Long Island, New York, packed with 289 famished immigrants. Ten of them died trying to swim to shore.

Although she had provided cash to buy the aging vessel in Thailand and had arranged for 20 of her immigrant customers to travel aboard the ship, Cheng did not view the Golden Venture's voyage as an important business deal, the trial evidence has shown.

When it came time to unload the hapless ship, she was overextended with other operations and not focused on its desperate passengers, witnesses and prosecutors said.

The trial of Cheng, 56, began in New York a week ago. She is charged with immigrant smuggling, hostage taking and money laundering. The prosecutors' case is based on wiretap evidence and testimony from convicted Chinese smugglers and Chinatown gang members who have been cooperating with the government since Cheng fled the United States in 1994.

Arrested in Hong Kong in April 2000, she has been vigorously fighting the charges, and it was 2003 before she was extradited to New York. If convicted on all counts she faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Cheng's lawyer, Lawrence Hochheiser, readily acknowledged in his opening statement last week that she was the busy chief executive of an "underground or unofficial bank" for immigrants. They went to her to remit their U.S. earnings to support relatives at home in China - and sometimes to transport the relatives clandestinely to the United States.

"There was never a thought of anyone being cheated" in her financial dealings, Hochheiser contended. He denied that she had been as directly engaged in immigrant smuggling.

Although Cheng made millions from banking and other businesses, Guo Liang Qi, the former leader of a Chinatown gang, testified that she kept her own cash - as much as $40,000 at one point - stuffed in a refrigerator at her Brooklyn home.

David Burns, a federal prosecutor, and the first two witnesses in the trial said that Cheng had become a "snakehead," a Chinese immigrant smuggler, primarily as an investor.

According to the testimony, her difficulty was a shortage of workers to manage ever-larger shiploads of customers, as she called them. She turned for help in the early 1990s to Chinatown's feared Fuk Ching gang when it was commanded by Guo.

Guo testified that Cheng had invited him to become her smuggling partner. Guo, one of the government's cooperating witnesses, has pleaded guilty to five gang murders in Chinatown and is serving a 20-year sentence in prison.

Guo said he and Cheng had completed one successful shipload of hundreds of Chinese immigrants in mid-1992.

The boat pulled into waters off Boston, and the immigrants were transported to New York in vans. Cheng paid him $750,000 for his gang's services, Guo said, and still made a nice profit from the trip.

Guo said he had instructed Cheng to wire $300,000 of that money through her network to Thailand, and he invested it in the Golden Venture, along with an associate, Weng Yu Hui.

Weng, a convicted smuggler who also testified in the case, explained why he and Guo had wanted to buy the Golden Venture, even though it was rusted and one engine was failing.

The captain of a Thai ship they had chartered earlier had rebelled in Mombasa, Kenya, and refused to go farther. He said he was not paid enough to carry the dangerous cargo, Weng testified.

Nearly 300 Chinese immigrants, including 20 customers of Cheng, were stranded in Mombasa for almost six months, Weng said. The Golden Venture was sent to pick them up and continue the trip to America.

Cheng instructed Weng to be sure her customers were on the ship. But he said that when they saw the Golden Venture, 18 of them refused to board, saying it was too small and crowded.

She was furious at losing the smuggling deals, Weng said. "She was quite upset, angry, saying I didn't handle the matter properly." After that, she signed over her two remaining customers to Weng and forgot about the Golden Venture, Weng said.

Just as the vessel was approaching American shores, two brothers of Guo were killed in a gang fight, leaving the Fuk Ching gang in disarray. They could not help unload the Golden Venture, Guo said.

Weng testified that he and two other smugglers decided that "we would find a beach, and let them barge into the beach." Knowing nothing about boats or navigation, Weng said he picked a beach because it looked very sandy.

Dozens of immigrants suffered hypothermia and injuries when they jumped from the boat into the frigid water. Weng said he went to Cheng's Chinatown shop and found her watching the television news about the ship.

She was thinking of her two customers, Weng said.

"She said her luck has not been very good lately," he testified. To console her, Weng said he pointed out that the odds were in her favor. "Out of 300 people, a few people died," he said.


NEW YORK The Chinese businesswoman called Sister Ping was known around Chinatown as the person to go to for smuggling immigrants.

But according to testimony last week in her U.S. District Court trial, smuggling was but a sideline for her - a small part of a multinational underground empire that she oversaw from a humble-looking Chinatown storefront.

At the height of her power, witnesses recalled, Sister Ping, whose real name is Cheng Chui Ping, owned restaurants, a clothing store and real estate in New York's Chinatown, as well as apartments in Hong Kong and a farm in South Africa.

But her main, multimillion-dollar business, evidence disclosed, was an underground banking network that stretched from New York to Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong and even into China.

One wiretapped phone call that prosecutors played in court showed that when one of her associates lost $200,000 in a reckless night of gambling, Cheng wired $20,000 to Hong Kong on less than a day's notice so he could begin to repay his debt.

The collapse of her illegal conglomerate began on June 6, 1993, when the Golden Venture, a tramp steamer that she had helped to finance, ran aground off Long Island, New York, packed with 289 famished immigrants. Ten of them died trying to swim to shore.

Although she had provided cash to buy the aging vessel in Thailand and had arranged for 20 of her immigrant customers to travel aboard the ship, Cheng did not view the Golden Venture's voyage as an important business deal, the trial evidence has shown.

When it came time to unload the hapless ship, she was overextended with other operations and not focused on its desperate passengers, witnesses and prosecutors said.

The trial of Cheng, 56, began in New York a week ago. She is charged with immigrant smuggling, hostage taking and money laundering. The prosecutors' case is based on wiretap evidence and testimony from convicted Chinese smugglers and Chinatown gang members who have been cooperating with the government since Cheng fled the United States in 1994.

Arrested in Hong Kong in April 2000, she has been vigorously fighting the charges, and it was 2003 before she was extradited to New York. If convicted on all counts she faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Cheng's lawyer, Lawrence Hochheiser, readily acknowledged in his opening statement last week that she was the busy chief executive of an "underground or unofficial bank" for immigrants. They went to her to remit their U.S. earnings to support relatives at home in China - and sometimes to transport the relatives clandestinely to the United States.

"There was never a thought of anyone being cheated" in her financial dealings, Hochheiser contended. He denied that she had been as directly engaged in immigrant smuggling.

Although Cheng made millions from banking and other businesses, Guo Liang Qi, the former leader of a Chinatown gang, testified that she kept her own cash - as much as $40,000 at one point - stuffed in a refrigerator at her Brooklyn home.

David Burns, a federal prosecutor, and the first two witnesses in the trial said that Cheng had become a "snakehead," a Chinese immigrant smuggler, primarily as an investor.

According to the testimony, her difficulty was a shortage of workers to manage ever-larger shiploads of customers, as she called them. She turned for help in the early 1990s to Chinatown's feared Fuk Ching gang when it was commanded by Guo.

Guo testified that Cheng had invited him to become her smuggling partner. Guo, one of the government's cooperating witnesses, has pleaded guilty to five gang murders in Chinatown and is serving a 20-year sentence in prison.

Guo said he and Cheng had completed one successful shipload of hundreds of Chinese immigrants in mid-1992.

The boat pulled into waters off Boston, and the immigrants were transported to New York in vans. Cheng paid him $750,000 for his gang's services, Guo said, and still made a nice profit from the trip.

Guo said he had instructed Cheng to wire $300,000 of that money through her network to Thailand, and he invested it in the Golden Venture, along with an associate, Weng Yu Hui.

Weng, a convicted smuggler who also testified in the case, explained why he and Guo had wanted to buy the Golden Venture, even though it was rusted and one engine was failing.

The captain of a Thai ship they had chartered earlier had rebelled in Mombasa, Kenya, and refused to go farther. He said he was not paid enough to carry the dangerous cargo, Weng testified.

Nearly 300 Chinese immigrants, including 20 customers of Cheng, were stranded in Mombasa for almost six months, Weng said. The Golden Venture was sent to pick them up and continue the trip to America.

Cheng instructed Weng to be sure her customers were on the ship. But he said that when they saw the Golden Venture, 18 of them refused to board, saying it was too small and crowded.

She was furious at losing the smuggling deals, Weng said. "She was quite upset, angry, saying I didn't handle the matter properly." After that, she signed over her two remaining customers to Weng and forgot about the Golden Venture, Weng said.

Just as the vessel was approaching American shores, two brothers of Guo were killed in a gang fight, leaving the Fuk Ching gang in disarray. They could not help unload the Golden Venture, Guo said.

Weng testified that he and two other smugglers decided that "we would find a beach, and let them barge into the beach." Knowing nothing about boats or navigation, Weng said he picked a beach because it looked very sandy.

Dozens of immigrants suffered hypothermia and injuries when they jumped from the boat into the frigid water. Weng said he went to Cheng's Chinatown shop and found her watching the television news about the ship.

She was thinking of her two customers, Weng said.

"She said her luck has not been very good lately," he testified. To console her, Weng said he pointed out that the odds were in her favor. "Out of 300 people, a few people died," he said.


NEW YORK The Chinese businesswoman called Sister Ping was known around Chinatown as the person to go to for smuggling immigrants.

But according to testimony last week in her U.S. District Court trial, smuggling was but a sideline for her - a small part of a multinational underground empire that she oversaw from a humble-looking Chinatown storefront.

At the height of her power, witnesses recalled, Sister Ping, whose real name is Cheng Chui Ping, owned restaurants, a clothing store and real estate in New York's Chinatown, as well as apartments in Hong Kong and a farm in South Africa.

But her main, multimillion-dollar business, evidence disclosed, was an underground banking network that stretched from New York to Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong and even into China.

One wiretapped phone call that prosecutors played in court showed that when one of her associates lost $200,000 in a reckless night of gambling, Cheng wired $20,000 to Hong Kong on less than a day's notice so he could begin to repay his debt.

The collapse of her illegal conglomerate began on June 6, 1993, when the Golden Venture, a tramp steamer that she had helped to finance, ran aground off Long Island, New York, packed with 289 famished immigrants. Ten of them died trying to swim to shore.

Although she had provided cash to buy the aging vessel in Thailand and had arranged for 20 of her immigrant customers to travel aboard the ship, Cheng did not view the Golden Venture's voyage as an important business deal, the trial evidence has shown.

When it came time to unload the hapless ship, she was overextended with other operations and not focused on its desperate passengers, witnesses and prosecutors said.

The trial of Cheng, 56, began in New York a week ago. She is charged with immigrant smuggling, hostage taking and money laundering. The prosecutors' case is based on wiretap evidence and testimony from convicted Chinese smugglers and Chinatown gang members who have been cooperating with the government since Cheng fled the United States in 1994.

Arrested in Hong Kong in April 2000, she has been vigorously fighting the charges, and it was 2003 before she was extradited to New York. If convicted on all counts she faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Cheng's lawyer, Lawrence Hochheiser, readily acknowledged in his opening statement last week that she was the busy chief executive of an "underground or unofficial bank" for immigrants. They went to her to remit their U.S. earnings to support relatives at home in China - and sometimes to transport the relatives clandestinely to the United States.

"There was never a thought of anyone being cheated" in her financial dealings, Hochheiser contended. He denied that she had been as directly engaged in immigrant smuggling.

Although Cheng made millions from banking and other businesses, Guo Liang Qi, the former leader of a Chinatown gang, testified that she kept her own cash - as much as $40,000 at one point - stuffed in a refrigerator at her Brooklyn home.

David Burns, a federal prosecutor, and the first two witnesses in the trial said that Cheng had become a "snakehead," a Chinese immigrant smuggler, primarily as an investor.

According to the testimony, her difficulty was a shortage of workers to manage ever-larger shiploads of customers, as she called them. She turned for help in the early 1990s to Chinatown's feared Fuk Ching gang when it was commanded by Guo.

Guo testified that Cheng had invited him to become her smuggling partner. Guo, one of the government's cooperating witnesses, has pleaded guilty to five gang murders in Chinatown and is serving a 20-year sentence in prison.

Guo said he and Cheng had completed one successful shipload of hundreds of Chinese immigrants in mid-1992.

The boat pulled into waters off Boston, and the immigrants were transported to New York in vans. Cheng paid him $750,000 for his gang's services, Guo said, and still made a nice profit from the trip.

Guo said he had instructed Cheng to wire $300,000 of that money through her network to Thailand, and he invested it in the Golden Venture, along with an associate, Weng Yu Hui.

Weng, a convicted smuggler who also testified in the case, explained why he and Guo had wanted to buy the Golden Venture, even though it was rusted and one engine was failing.

The captain of a Thai ship they had chartered earlier had rebelled in Mombasa, Kenya, and refused to go farther. He said he was not paid enough to carry the dangerous cargo, Weng testified.

Nearly 300 Chinese immigrants, including 20 customers of Cheng, were stranded in Mombasa for almost six months, Weng said. The Golden Venture was sent to pick them up and continue the trip to America.

Cheng instructed Weng to be sure her customers were on the ship. But he said that when they saw the Golden Venture, 18 of them refused to board, saying it was too small and crowded.

She was furious at losing the smuggling deals, Weng said. "She was quite upset, angry, saying I didn't handle the matter properly." After that, she signed over her two remaining customers to Weng and forgot about the Golden Venture, Weng said.

Just as the vessel was approaching American shores, two brothers of Guo were killed in a gang fight, leaving the Fuk Ching gang in disarray. They could not help unload the Golden Venture, Guo said.

Weng testified that he and two other smugglers decided that "we would find a beach, and let them barge into the beach." Knowing nothing about boats or navigation, Weng said he picked a beach because it looked very sandy.

Dozens of immigrants suffered hypothermia and injuries when they jumped from the boat into the frigid water. Weng said he went to Cheng's Chinatown shop and found her watching the television news about the ship.

She was thinking of her two customers, Weng said.

"She said her luck has not been very good lately," he testified. To console her, Weng said he pointed out that the odds were in her favor. "Out of 300 people, a few people died," he said.


NEW YORK The Chinese businesswoman called Sister Ping was known around Chinatown as the person to go to for smuggling immigrants.

But according to testimony last week in her U.S. District Court trial, smuggling was but a sideline for her - a small part of a multinational underground empire that she oversaw from a humble-looking Chinatown storefront.

At the height of her power, witnesses recalled, Sister Ping, whose real name is Cheng Chui Ping, owned restaurants, a clothing store and real estate in New York's Chinatown, as well as apartments in Hong Kong and a farm in South Africa.

But her main, multimillion-dollar business, evidence disclosed, was an underground banking network that stretched from New York to Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong and even into China.

One wiretapped phone call that prosecutors played in court showed that when one of her associates lost $200,000 in a reckless night of gambling, Cheng wired $20,000 to Hong Kong on less than a day's notice so he could begin to repay his debt.

The collapse of her illegal conglomerate began on June 6, 1993, when the Golden Venture, a tramp steamer that she had helped to finance, ran aground off Long Island, New York, packed with 289 famished immigrants. Ten of them died trying to swim to shore.

Although she had provided cash to buy the aging vessel in Thailand and had arranged for 20 of her immigrant customers to travel aboard the ship, Cheng did not view the Golden Venture's voyage as an important business deal, the trial evidence has shown.

When it came time to unload the hapless ship, she was overextended with other operations and not focused on its desperate passengers, witnesses and prosecutors said.

The trial of Cheng, 56, began in New York a week ago. She is charged with immigrant smuggling, hostage taking and money laundering. The prosecutors' case is based on wiretap evidence and testimony from convicted Chinese smugglers and Chinatown gang members who have been cooperating with the government since Cheng fled the United States in 1994.

Arrested in Hong Kong in April 2000, she has been vigorously fighting the charges, and it was 2003 before she was extradited to New York. If convicted on all counts she faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Cheng's lawyer, Lawrence Hochheiser, readily acknowledged in his opening statement last week that she was the busy chief executive of an "underground or unofficial bank" for immigrants. They went to her to remit their U.S. earnings to support relatives at home in China - and sometimes to transport the relatives clandestinely to the United States.

"There was never a thought of anyone being cheated" in her financial dealings, Hochheiser contended. He denied that she had been as directly engaged in immigrant smuggling.

Although Cheng made millions from banking and other businesses, Guo Liang Qi, the former leader of a Chinatown gang, testified that she kept her own cash - as much as $40,000 at one point - stuffed in a refrigerator at her Brooklyn home.

David Burns, a federal prosecutor, and the first two witnesses in the trial said that Cheng had become a "snakehead," a Chinese immigrant smuggler, primarily as an investor.

According to the testimony, her difficulty was a shortage of workers to manage ever-larger shiploads of customers, as she called them. She turned for help in the early 1990s to Chinatown's feared Fuk Ching gang when it was commanded by Guo.

Guo testified that Cheng had invited him to become her smuggling partner. Guo, one of the government's cooperating witnesses, has pleaded guilty to five gang murders in Chinatown and is serving a 20-year sentence in prison.

Guo said he and Cheng had completed one successful shipload of hundreds of Chinese immigrants in mid-1992.

The boat pulled into waters off Boston, and the immigrants were transported to New York in vans. Cheng paid him $750,000 for his gang's services, Guo said, and still made a nice profit from the trip.

Guo said he had instructed Cheng to wire $300,000 of that money through her network to Thailand, and he invested it in the Golden Venture, along with an associate, Weng Yu Hui.

Weng, a convicted smuggler who also testified in the case, explained why he and Guo had wanted to buy the Golden Venture, even though it was rusted and one engine was failing.

The captain of a Thai ship they had chartered earlier had rebelled in Mombasa, Kenya, and refused to go farther. He said he was not paid enough to carry the dangerous cargo, Weng testified.

Nearly 300 Chinese immigrants, including 20 customers of Cheng, were stranded in Mombasa for almost six months, Weng said. The Golden Venture was sent to pick them up and continue the trip to America.

Cheng instructed Weng to be sure her customers were on the ship. But he said that when they saw the Golden Venture, 18 of them refused to board, saying it was too small and crowded.

She was furious at losing the smuggling deals, Weng said. "She was quite upset, angry, saying I didn't handle the matter properly." After that, she signed over her two remaining customers to Weng and forgot about the Golden Venture, Weng said.

Just as the vessel was approaching American shores, two brothers of Guo were killed in a gang fight, leaving the Fuk Ching gang in disarray. They could not help unload the Golden Venture, Guo said.

Weng testified that he and two other smugglers decided that "we would find a beach, and let them barge into the beach." Knowing nothing about boats or navigation, Weng said he picked a beach because it looked very sandy.

Dozens of immigrants suffered hypothermia and injuries when they jumped from the boat into the frigid water. Weng said he went to Cheng's Chinatown shop and found her watching the television news about the ship.

She was thinking of her two customers, Weng said.

"She said her luck has not been very good lately," he testified. To console her, Weng said he pointed out that the odds were in her favor. "Out of 300 people, a few people died," he said.

This so-called "underground BANKING system" is very common among the Asians & Latinos in the Tri-state area.

Although we knew about it, the extent of it as depicted here amazes me.

Gee, Mayor Bloomberg, don't those ILLEGALS do us proud? {as you're always reminding us....... you ninkumpoop}

Yes, the amount of money involved amazes me as well. And I just bet they paid their fair share of taxes as law abiding citizens.