Yet another U.S.-based Chinese citizen has been arrested for EB-5 fraud involving a never-constructed California real estate development. She is said to have reaped $21.6 million from her clients; most of them, if not all, from China.
In a small, new twist in this case, she managed to spend $295,000 on two Mercedes Benz vehicles, according to an article behind a partial paywall at Law360.
The EB-5 program, with EB standing for "employment-based", provides a family-sized set of temporary-to-be-permanent-later green cards to the families of investors who put up $900,000 (once $500,000) in investments identified by, but not guaranteed by, the Department of Homeland Security.
Most of the aliens in the program are from China, as are most of the victims, as we have reported in the past.
Arrested on June 20 was Ruixue "Serena" Shi, a resident of Arcadia, Calif. The complex she said she was building, but was not, had the usual mix of a hotel and condos, pools and spas, conference facilities and a fitness center. She said she had the needed building permits from the City of Coachella, but did not.
And, as is traditional, the cop on the beat was not DHS, it the FBI this time. Often it is the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The case is U.S. v. Shi, number 2:20-mj-02807 in the federal courts for the Central District of California; it does not seem to be entered yet in the PACER system.