CHINESE NATIONAL PLEADS GUILTY TO FRAUDULENTLY OBTAINING
U.S. CITIZENSHIP

Defendant Agrees To Cooperate In Ongoing Investigation Into $500 Million Bank Of China Embezzlement

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Assistant Attorney General Christopher A. Wray of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Daniel G. Bogden of the District of Nevada announced today that Chinese national Yu Xuhui, a/k/a Fion Yu, has pleaded guilty to a one-count criminal information charging her with unlawfully procuring U.S. citizenship and naturalization.

Pursuant to a plea agreement with the United States, Yu is required to fully cooperate with the governments of the United States, China, Hong Kong and Canada in ongoing investigations of the immigration conspiracy and embezzlement at the Bank of China.

Yu, 36, entered the plea today at federal court in Las Vegas. Yu faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing has been scheduled for July 15, 2005.

On Sept. 21, 2004, a federal grand jury in Las Vegas returned an 11-count superseding indictment charging five Chinese nationals, including two high-ranking Bank of China officials, their wives and Ms. Yu, with conspiring and engaging in an elaborate marriage and visa fraud scheme geared towards circumventing U.S. immigration laws. Ms. Yu is the wife of a third Bank of China official, Yu Zhendong, who pleaded guilty on Feb. 18, 2004 to a one-count information charging him with participating in a racketeering enterprise. Specifically, Mr. Yu pleaded guilty to conspiring with others to embezzle more than $500 million from the Bank of China and then laundering the proceeds through myriad shell companies based in China and Hong Kong, and into the United States and Canada. Mr. Yu was sentenced in April 2004 to 12 years in prison and then voluntarily returned to the People’s Republic of China to be tried in connection with the bank embezzlement.

This matter is being handled jointly by Trial Attorneys Marty Woelfle and Cynthia Stone of the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section, headed by Bruce Ohr; Trial Attorney Armando O. Bonilla of the Public Integrity Section, headed by Noel Hillman, and Organized Crime Strike Force Chief Eric Johnson of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Nevada. The case was investigated by the Las Vegas, Nevada, Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement of the Department of Homeland Security.

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