LOS ANGELES, California — A 59-year-old man from Rancho Cucamonga has been sentenced to 41 months in federal prison for operating a “birth tourism” scheme that charged Chinese clients to secure U.S. citizenship for their newborns. Michael Wei Yueh Liu was sentenced by United States District Judge R. Gary Klausner.
Liu, along with 47-year-old Jing Dong, also of Rancho Cucamonga, was found guilty of conspiracy and international money laundering by a jury on September 13. Dong is expected to be sentenced in the coming weeks. From January 2012 to March 2015, the pair ran a maternity house in Rancho Cucamonga, renting apartments in Southern California to provide short-term housing and other services to pregnant women from China, according to a press release from the United States Attorney’s Office.
The services included assistance with obtaining visas, customs entry guidance, housing, transportation, and applying for U.S. legal documents for the children. Liu and Dong advised clients on how to conceal their pregnancies from immigration authorities and were aware that their clients lied on visa applications, falsely stating the purpose of their trip as tourism and misstating their intended length of stay and location, the press release stated…