U.S. Department of Justice U.S. Attorney's Office Southern District of Texas News Release
Mervyn M. Mosbacker United States Attorney

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

June 26, 2000

Norma Estimbo Lacy
Public Affairs Specialist
Phone: 713/567-9388 Fax: 713/718-3389
E-Mail: Norma.Lacy@usdoj.gov

LOCAL IMMIGRATION ATTORNEY SENTENCED TO PRISON FOR VISA AND TAX FRAUD
Edward F. Gallagher, Assistant U. S. Attorney
Phone: 713/567-9343

(HOUSTON) U. S. Attorney Mervyn M. Mosbacker announced today that Justin Jin-Lin Ong, 42, a Houston area immigration attorney, was sentenced to four months imprisonment, four months home confinement, and fined $7,500 by U. S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore. Ong was convicted of visa fraud and filing a fraudulent income tax return following a guilty plea on November 16, 1999.

Ong was indicted by a federal grand jury in February of last year for a scheme to
defraud his clients and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) through the filing of fraudulent visa applications between June 1995 and February 1997.
Ong operated an immigration law practice at 3100 Weslayan, Suite 450, in Houston, Texas, and represented a number of Chinese aliens who sought immigration visas and permanent residence in the United States. Ong previously admitted to giving two Chinese clients, Guo Hui Gou and Hong Yan Zhao, false immigration documents in order to facilitate their admission as students at Houston Community College in December 1995. The students presented the forms to the University, but the University verified with INS authorities that the identification numbers did not match the names on the forms. Ong also admitted that he failed to pay income tax for income amounting to over $600,000 earned by his law practice in 1995 and 1996 and that he owed the IRS over $90,000 in back taxes.

As part of Ong' sentence, he surrendered his license to practice law; agreed to pay back taxes with penalty and interest for the tax years 1995 and 1996; and cease any employment related to immigration law.

The two-year investigation was handled by agents from the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Diplomatic Security, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division, with assistance from the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the U.S. Department of Labor. The prosecution was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Edward F. Gallagher of the Special Prosecutions Section, Organized Crime Strike Force.

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