Posted on 03/07/2019 7:04:31 PM PST by BenLurkin
Li allegedly used bypasses to divert electricity from power lines, creating fire risks in the neighborhoods. He even created fake leases for some of the properties and the documents also showed evidence of fake tenants, forged electronic signatures and special sections that supposedly prohibited the fake tenants from cultivating marijuana inside the homes.
Down payments for most of the homes were traced back to wire transfers from China, according to the affidavit, and several of them were bought by people who had nothing to do with the transaction, officials allege.
The affidavit describes how one such buyer, dubbed a “straw buyer,” bought a Chino Hills home for $782,000 in 2015. The supposed buyer was named as CEO of an LLC that Li had established, and that company received a $1 million wire transfer from a Hong Kong-based investment group. Most of the purchase price of the home was then wired from the LLC’s bank account, and Li received a commission check as the realtor for the sale.
The total purchase price for the seven homes, bought between 2013 and 2017, was $4,067,882.
In June 2018, San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department deputies seized 1,038 marijuana plants from an eighth grow house in Chino Hills that is believed to be a part of the scheme.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations also assisted in the investigation.
(Excerpt) Read more at ktla.com ...
I hope it wasn’t all ‘Birthday Cake’. ;(
I’m against civil forfeiture but in cases involving drugs and foreigners I’d give LEO’s carte-blanche:
Just take it ALL, expedited.
That goes triple when the perps are PRC.
Applying only for foreign nationals is the only form of civil assett forfeiture that should be allowed. PERIOD!!!!!
Diversity Is Our Strength
A lot of big time crime in SoCal is international in nature, one of the joys of having massive 3rd world immigration. Like the birth hotels for Chinese anchor babies, that most Americans have no idea exist.
Some trans-national gangs fly to LA, hit a jewelry store or an armored car, and then fly back home. Commuting, globalism style.
As soon as I read the title I knew it had to be in S.CA.
The state is now crawling with foreign nationals in every direction.
So What! He can lie right out in the open & give us the finger because nothing will happen. GET with it FReepers. The constitution means NADA.
This sounds like an EB-5 visa scam.
EB-5, which is used overwhelmingly by Chinese nationals, is a minimum $500,000 “business investment” in the USA that produces a certain number of jobs.
In exchange for the “investment,” the USA gives Green Cards to the investor, his spouse, and their children.
There is rampant fraud in the EB-5 program, which I believe is administered by the State Department, and not by Homeland Security.
Interesting that this is in California, where pot is more or less legal, but heavily taxed and regulated. Overregulating and over-taxing something is only a step down from outright prohibition, and promotes a black market.
There are literally Hundreds of these in the San Fernando valley, I know someone that installed AC in at least 20 ran by the same person, has been going on for over 10 years.
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