Another nabbed in fake job scam

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested another person allegedly involved in a fraudulent scheme to invite Chinese nationals to come to the CNMI as tourists and then work as farmers on Tinian.

ICE agents arrested Honglian Cheng, a female Chinese national, on Friday on two counts of encouraging two aliens to come to the CNMI to unlawfully work while paroled in as tourists.

At a Friday afternoon hearing at the U.S. District Court for the NMI, visiting judge John C. Coughenour directed the appointment of a counsel for Cheng and set her detention hearing for tomorrow, Wednesday, at 10am.

ICE special agent Isra D. Harahap stated in his affidavit that Cheng helped two Chinese nationals—Guoquan Liu and Qiang Zhou—travel to the CNMI in March 2011 on the pretext of being tourists while actually helping them find jobs.

Harahap said that on March 24, 2011, he received information from the Department of Public Safety on Tinian that Liu and Zhou, both males, were on Tinian and had been recruited to work there as farmers.

Harahap said that Tinian DPS reported that Liu and Zhou had complaints about their situation and were planning to fly to Saipan in order to return to China.

The special agent said he interviewed Liu and Zhou after they arrived on Saipan on March 25, 2011, and learned that both had been recruited in China to work as farmers on Saipan. The two each paid their recruiter 60,000 RMB ($9,000) to come to Saipan.

Liu said that Cheng made him state on the immigration form that he was a tourist and that he was staying on Saipan for just four days in order to avoid any problems entering the island.

When they arrived on Saipan and exited the airport terminal, Liu said Cheng told them they were going to Tinian. After paying Cheng $60, they immediately flew to Tinian.

While on Tinian, Cheng told Liu that Hequian Ma was going to take care of their room and board on Tinian. Liu said they met Ma and stayed on Tinian at Ma’s house for five days.

On March 24, 2011, Liu got into an argument with Ma and told Ma that he was not going to work for her and that he was going back to China.

Liu said that he and Zhou spent the night at the Tinian police station, and then flew to Saipan the next morning in order to fly back to China.

Ma is facing indictment charging her with two counts of alien smuggling and two counts of fraud in foreign labor contracting over the same recruitment scheme involving two other Chinese nationals.