Usually, an EB-5 (immigrant investor) fraud case is handled by the United States alone.
Usually, the fraud consists of a States-side middleman cheating an alien investor.
Usually, the case is completed within a couple of years.
None of those patterns apply to Jianjun Qiao, a Chinese national who allegedly embezzled millions from the grain warehouse he managed in China, and then used some of that money to secure an EB-5 investment in southern California. An ICE press release indicates that he was scheduled to be arraigned on June 1 in a Los Angeles federal district court.
The charges are that he committed immigration fraud (among other criminal acts) when he and his ex-wife, Shilan Zhao, filed papers for the EB-5 visa covering up how he had secured the money for the investment.
We routinely do not report on an EB-5 fraud case more than once, but this one is different in yet another way. Early on, the Chinese government, in an undescribed manner, helped with the investigation. More recently, Sweden agreed to his arrest in that nation and to his subsequent extradition. Typically no other nations are involved in these cases.
Another unusual aspect of the case is the timing. The investigation started at some point prior to July 2014, when the two were indicted by a federal grand jury. It has thus been at least six years in process. She pleaded guilty to charges and will be sentenced on August 17. No date has yet been set for his trial, and so the case may extend into next year.