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Woman pleads not guilty to job scam charges
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Posted on Jun 06 2011
A woman indicted on charges of engaging in a fraudulent scheme to invite Chinese nationals to come to the CNMI to work at non-existing jobs has pleaded not guilty.
During Friday’s hearing in the U.S. District Court for the NMI, Heqian Ma, who appeared with counsel, Michael Evangelista, pleaded not guilty to two counts of alien smuggling, and two counts of fraud in foreign labor contracting.
Judge John C. Coughenour set a jury trial for Aug. 1, 2011.
Ma was remanded back into the custody of the U.S. Marshal until further orders.
Assistant U.S. attorney Eric O’Malley appeared for the U.S. government at the hearing.
According to the indictment, on Dec. 16, 2010, Ma encouraged couple Weifeng Guo and Yujan Li, both citizens of the People’s Republic of China, to come and reside in the CNMI, knowing that their entering would be in violation of law.
Ma allegedly recruited the two in China for non-existent jobs in the CNMI.
The investigation reportedly began on Feb. 3, 2011, when Guo and his wife, Li, went to the ICE office on Saipan and reported that Ma had promised them jobs at a massage shop on Saipan.
