Two allegedly overstaying Chinese tourists who were recently arrested after presenting CNMI driver\u2019s licenses that they had obtained through fraud have separately pleaded guilty in federal court.<\/p>\n
Guangjiang Deng pleaded guilty last Monday to participating in a conspiracy to illegally produce an identification document, while Huanqi Wu pleaded guilty last Friday to the same offense.<\/p>\n
The two were allowed to remain free while awaiting to be sentenced. Deng will be sentenced on Dec. 27, 2019, while Wu\u2019s will be sentenced on March 13, 2020.<\/p>\n
Deng and Wu were released on their own personal recognizance, but they were ordered to abide by their release conditions.<\/p>\n
Assistant U.S. attorney Garth Backe appeared for the U.S. government. Mark Hanson and Colin Thompson served as the court-appointed counsel for Deng and Wu, respectively.<\/p>\n
In Deng\u2019s case, he reportedly conspired with another person on June 21, 2017, to unlawfully produce an identification document.<\/p>\n
The other individual would assist Deng to unlawfully obtain a CNMI driver\u2019s license through the submission of false or fraudulent documents to the CNMI Bureau of Motor Vehicles.<\/p>\n
With the individual\u2019s assistance, Deng illegally obtained a CNMI driver\u2019s license on June 21, 2017.<\/p>\n
Deng used and possessed the driver\u2019s license \u201cin a manner that affected interstate commerce.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to court records, it was Federal Protective Service inspector Sean White who encountered Wu last Thursday, Dec. 12, that led to the defendant\u2019s arrest after he presented a CNMI driver\u2019s license when asked for identification.<\/p>\n
According to Homeland Security Investigations Task Force officer Cristin Duenas, a check with the DHS systems revealed that Deng entered the CNMI on Nov. 19, 2016, and was granted CNMI-only conditional parole by U.S. Customs and Border Protection until Dec. 1, 2016.<\/p>\n
DHS records also showed that Deng was administratively arrested on Feb. 22, 2019, and is in removal proceedings.<\/p>\n
Duenas said that Deng confessed that a Chinese recruiter offered to get him a driver\u2019s license for $1,500. Deng agreed and paid the recruiter. With the help of another person, Deng managed to get a driver\u2019s license.<\/p>\n
In Wu\u2019s case, the defendant did not sign a plea deal, but entered a guilty plea right away. It was also White who intercepted Wu last Dec. 6.<\/p>\n
DHS records confirmed that Wu entered the CNMI on Sept. 27, 2016 and was granted CNMI-only conditional parole by U.S. Customs and Border Protection until Sept. 30, 2016.<\/p>\n
Wu reportedly confessed to paying a \u201cknown conspirator\u201d 2,100 RMB or about $300 for help in getting his license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Two allegedly overstaying Chinese tourists who were recently arrested after presenting CNMI driver\u2019s licenses that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-314547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314547\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}