Thread: Orange County attorney representing clients in 'Chinese birthing house' probe charged

I.C.E. News Release

OPERATIONAL

05/18/2015

Orange County attorney representing clients in 'Chinese birthing house' probe charged with attempted witness tampering

Lawyer arrested after accepting $6,000 to smuggle a witness out of U.S.

SANTA ANA, Calif. – An Irvine-based immigration attorney has been arrested and charged with attempted witness tampering after agreeing to help a Chinese national flee the United States after the woman had been designated as a “material witness” in a criminal investigation into “birthing houses” operating in Southern California.

Ken Zhiyi Liang, 38, of Irvine, was arrested Friday afternoon by special agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) after accepting $6,000 from the witness in exchange for helping her abscond to China.

In a criminal complaint filed Saturday, Liang was charged with attempted witness tampering, a charge that carries a statutory maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison. Liang is scheduled to make his initial court appearance Monday afternoon in U.S. District Court.

The probe into the birthing houses is being conducted by HSI and IRS – Criminal Investigation.

The Chinese national had been designated as a material witness in the federal investigation, meaning she was subject to a court order preventing her from leaving the United States without authorization from the government or court.

Liang had represented the witness in the matter until the court removed him as attorney of record, over his objections, on April 17.

The federal investigation, which became known when authorities executed dozens of search warrants in early March, focuses on so-called birthing houses that “provided services to Chinese nationals, who travelled into the United States from China, for the purpose of giving birth to children so that the children could obtain United States citizenship,” according to the affidavit in support of the criminal complaint against Liang.

The affidavit, which was written by a special agent with HSI recounts several video and audio-recorded calls and meetings between Liang and the witness. During these conversations, Liang outlined a plan in which he would assist the witness by having her board a commercial airliner in the United States without travel documentation, so she could escape to China undetected by federal authorities.

At one of the meetings, Liang told the witness that he could guarantee her safe return to China in exchange for a $6,000 fee for himself, and up to $3,000 to pay for help provided by three others.

During the meetings detailed in the affidavit, Liang refused to provide a written contract to the witness and requested that she pay him in cash, delete text messages and call logs, and begin using a prepaid cellular phone for all future communications.

Unbeknownst to Liang, the witness was cooperating with federal agents, who were monitoring the conversations between Liang and the witness. Liang was arrested by federal authorities as he was walking with the witness towards his car, supposedly to begin a trip to a coffee shop in Corona, where he was going to introduce the witness to the co-conspirators, who are not identified in the affidavit. After his arrest, Liang led agents back to his office, where he returned the $6,000 he had accepted from the witness.

According to the affidavit in Liang’s case, the attorney provided assistance to two other material witnesses – LongJing Yi, and her husband, Jun Xiao – who fled to the U.S. on April 4 and were subsequently charged in relation to their flight from the U.S. Another material witness who allegedly received help from Liang was intercepted at Los Angeles International Airport April 15.

https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/or...-probe-charged

Irvine attorney in birth tourism case arrested, accused of accepting money to help material witness get back to China

May 18, 2015
Updated 1:16 p.m.

VIEW SLIDESHOW

File photo of attorney Ken Z. Liang, who was arrested Friday on charges of attempted witness tampering, government officials said Monday. Liang represents individuals served search warrants during a federal crackdown in Southern California on three birth tourism companies. Authorities asked his clients to serve as material witnesses against the companies that police say aided pregnant Chinese women traveling to U.S. to give birth.ANA VENEGAS, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

BY ROXANA KOPETMAN AND SCOTT SCHWEBKE / STAFF WRITERS

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An Irvine attorney who represents Chinese parents mired in a federal crackdown on the local birth tourism industry was arrested on charges of attempted witness tampering, government officials said Monday.

Ken Z. Liang, 38, who was arrested outside his Irvine office Friday afternoon and spent the weekend in federal custody, is scheduled to be arraigned in federal court in Santa Ana this afternoon.

Liang is accused of accepting $6,000 from a material witness in exchange for helping her leave the country, despite court orders, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Liang also asked for $3,000 for help provided by three others, but declined to offer a written contract and asked for cash payments, officials alleged.

The witness was cooperating with federal officials and the conversations were monitored and recorded.

Liang was arrested as he was walking with the witness towards his car, “supposedly to begin a trip to a coffee shop in Corona, where he was going to introduce the witness to the co-conspirators, who are not identified in the affidavit,” according to Thom Mrozek, a U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman.

After his arrest, officials said Liang led agents back to his office and returned the $6,000 he had accepted from the witness.

"Obviously, anytime somebody interferes with a federal investigation particularly when witness is under court order, it’s extremely serious," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Jerry Chenwei Yang. "It’s serious conduct we will investigate thoroughly."

The U.S. Attorney’s Office designated 29 Chinese nationals--pregnant women and their family members--as material witnesses in an investigation against three Chinese companies that provide vacation-style trips to families who want to have their newborns born in the United States.

Federal agents swarmed apartment complexes and homes in Orange, Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties on March 3, interviewing Chinese pregnant women and seizing computers and documents. Federal officials said the companies have engaged in visa and tax fraud, money laundering and conspiracy.

Company operators have not been charged.

Instead, one new mother who was designated as a material witness was arrested at the Los Angeles Airport on April 15 as she was trying to leave the country with her newborn. Ying Wu remains under house arrest and wears a GPS monitoring device.

Another 10 witnesses, including four men, who left the country were issued arrest warrants on April 30. Federal officials accused them of obstruction of justice, contempt of court and making false statements on their visa applications.

An 11th Chinese national, temporarily living in Orange County, is married to one of the material witnesses and although she was not designated as a material witness, she was charged with visa fraud after she left the country with her husband and baby.

Liang represented the Orange County couple. He also represents several other material witnesses.

During an interview last month, Liang questioned the government’s focus on the women intead of the companies and expressed optimism that the charges against his clients could be cleared.

Liang also defended his wealthy clients, saying no one had run out on their hospital bills, as government officials allege in court documents.

“You shouldn’t handle them as criminals,” Liang said during an earlier interview.

The families paid $50,000 and more for their stay in Southern California, which depending on the package they chose included trips to Disneyland, South Coast Plaza, and for some, a shooting range.

In the United States, anyone born in this country receives automatic birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment. It is not illegal to come to the U.S. to give birth, but it is illegal to lie about one’s intentions on a visa application.

If convicted, Liang faces a maximum of 20 years in federal prison.

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/l...s-federal.html

Contact the writer: 714-796-7829 or rkopetman@ocregister.com

Chinese Birth Tourism Lawyer Loses Fight For Pre-Trial Bail After His Arrest

By R. Scott Moxley Wed., May 20 2015 at 3:35 PM

Liang: Feds worry he'd flee to China if released from custody

An Irvine lawyer this afternoon lost his fight to gain pre-trial release from custody following his May 18 arrest for alleged illegal involvement in the Chinese birth tourism scandal.U.S. District Court Judge Cormac J. Carney made the decision against China-native Ken Zhiyi Liang after federal prosecutor Jerry C. Yang asked him to overrule a prior magistrate judge's decision to allow the defendant's pre-trial release on $100,000 bail.

According to Yang, there's evidence Liang, 38, may have already smuggled two witnesses in the case back to China and he bragged to a government informant wearing audio and video devices that he knew how to get out of the U.S. on an airplane without possessing necessary papers.

"The defendant has an enormous incentive to flee," Yang told the judge.

The government complaint states that agents arrested Liang--who earned a California Bar license--after he tried to get a $6,000 payment from a Chinese woman in exchange for arranging her quiet departure the country before she could become a material witness in the case.

"He knew what he was doing," Yang told Carney. "We have a very, very strong case."

Kenneth Reed, Liang's Santa Ana-based defense lawyer who initially sought a $50,000 bail, complained that government officials say his client is a flight risk based on potentially weak evidence they have so far kept secret.

But calling the case "serious," Carney said concerns about Liang fleeing were legitimate based on an affidavit filed by a federal agent who described the defendant's role in a pay-to-play scheme to brings pregnant Chinese woman to Southern California apartment complexes so their newborns would become automatic U.S. citizens.

Yang promised Reed he would receive evidence implicating Liang by next week.

Reed in turn told Carney he will renew his request for bail if he believes there are holes in the government's case.

Liang, who faces a potential 20-year prison punishment if convicted, is scheduled to re-appear in court on June 22 inside Orange County's Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse.

State bar records show the defendant graduated from Case Western School of Law in Cleveland and received his license to practice in California in June 2005.

He had a clean disciplinary record.

http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2015/05/birth_tourism.php