Two former GOP donors were charged with wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, and conspiracy to defraud the United States, federal prosecutors announced Monday.
A criminal complaint against Sherry Xue Li, 50, and Lianbo Wang, 45, both naturalized U.S. citizens, was unsealed in a federal court in Brooklyn, New York, the Justice Department said in a statement on Monday.
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Breon Peace, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, explained how Li and Wang allegedly defrauded people.
“As alleged, the defendants enticed their victims to invest in a fraudulent scheme aided by misleadingly claiming that their fictitious project had the support of prominent politicians,” Peace said. “The defendants were able to perpetrate this fraud by then selling access to U.S. politicians by unlawfully contributing foreign money to political campaigns in their own names and bringing foreign nationals as their guests to fundraising events.”
Li and Wang allegedly were behind a decade-long plan to defraud investors through their “Thompson Education Center” by saying it had support from government officials and saying the progress on the center was going forward.
The prosecutors also allege Li and Wang “acted as ‘straw donors’ for foreign nationals to unlawfully contribute to campaigns supporting U.S. politicians and political committees.”
Li and Wang allegedly sold admission to foreign nationals for an event featuring then-President Donald Trump in 2017. The pair also used a photo taken at the event with Li and Trump to get investors to fund in their “Thompson Education Center” project.
Thomas Fattorusso, the special agent in charge at the IRS Criminal Investigations New York Field Office, said cooperation between organizations allowed the prosecutors to charge Li and Wang.
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“It’s alleged that Li and Wang defrauded their victim-investors out of millions, then used their ill-gotten gains to live luxuriously and ‘rub elbows’ with prominent politicians” Fattorusso said. “It is through law enforcement partnerships and collaboration that we were able to break-down this multi-layered fraud scheme and ensure that the alleged culprits now face justice for their criminal behavior.”
Li and Wang were arrested Monday in Oyster Bay, New York, and are being held without bail. Their initial appearance was scheduled for Monday afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Ramon Reyes Jr. at the U.S. Courthouse in Brooklyn, New York, DOJ said.
