California man sentenced to more than 3 years for running birthing tourism scheme

A Rancho Cucamonga man was sentenced to more than three years in prison for his role in a birthing scheme that prosecutors alleged allowed more than 100 parents to travel to the U.S. from China to give birth so that their children would have U.S. citizenship.
Michael Wei Yueh Liu, 59, was sentenced to three years and five months in prison after a four-day trial on Sept. 13 found him and 47-year-old Jing Dong guilty of one count of conspiracy and 10 counts of international money laundering, according to the Department of Justice.
Starting as early as January 2012 through May 2015, Liu and Dong ran a maternity home in Rancho Cucamonga and rented homes, where they provided short-term housing and services to pregnant women who traveled to the U.S. from China to give birth, so their kids would have U.S. citizenship.
Liu and Dong typically charged customers between $20,000 and $40,000 for their services, but sometimes charged “VIP” customers $100,000.
Usually about a month or two after giving birth, the women returned to China, according to the DOJ.
As part of their services through USA Happy Baby, Liu and Dong helped customers obtained visas to enter the U.S., get customs entry transportation and apply for legal documents for their children. They also instructed their customers on how to hide their pregnancies from immigration authorities and knew or deliberately avoided learning that their customers lied on their U.S. visa applications, the DOJ said.
Most of the time, customers’ visa applications said that they were visiting the U.S. for several days or weeks for tourism, when in reality they were traveling to the country for months to give birth, according to the DOJ.
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Liu and Dong also told customers to fly to ports of entry where they believed there was less scrutiny at customs, like Hawaii, before they flew to Los Angeles. They also told them to wear loose fitting clothing, to choose lines at customs that they believed were less strict and advised them how to answer questions from customs officials.
Liu and Dong received money from overseas that they used to promote the birthing tourism scheme. To promote their services, Liu and Dong advertised the benefits of giving birth in the United States, which they claimed included “better air” and less pollution, food safety, better educational resources and a more stable political environment as well as the possibility their kids could petition to bring their parents to the U.S. in the future.
The pair used agents in China to recruit pregnant Chinese nationals who wanted to give birth in the U.S. and persuade them to use USA Happy Baby’s services. They then paid the agents 30% of the package fees and kept the remaining 70%, according to court documents.
Prosecutors argued that one of the defendants received more than $3.8 million in wire transfers from overseas between August 2012 and March 2015, the DOJ said.
In the U.S., Liu and Dong employed more than 20 people through USA Happy Baby and paid them mainly with cash, according to court documents.
Liu and USA Happy Baby would file false federal income tax returns and failed to report $1.9 million in income from 2012 to 2014, according to court documents.