USDA EMPLOYEE, WIFE PLEAD GUILTY TO CHARGES RELATED TO VISA FRAUD SCHEME

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Acting Assistant Attorney General Christopher Wray of the Criminal Division announced today that Department of Agriculture employee Hsin Hui Hsu and his wife, Jing Ling Wu Hsu, a/k/a “Jenny Wu,” have pleaded guilty in federal court in Washington, D.C. to criminal charges stemming from their role in a visa fraud scheme.

Hsu pleaded guilty in a hearing before U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly to one count of conspiracy to commit visa fraud. His wife pleaded guilty to one count of conflict of interest. The defendants fraudulent scheme resulted in $82,000 in payments and 99 illegally obtained visas for Chinese nationals.

According to the plea agreements, Hsu, an agricultural economist employed by the USDA, was assigned to the Economic Research Service (ERS). As part of his official duties, Hsu had authority to invite groups of Chinese nationals with expertise in agricultural science and economics to come to the United States so that they could meet with, consult and learn from American experts in the same or similar fields.

Beginning in late 1999, Hsu entered into a conspiracy whereby his co-conspirators would locate Chinese nationals in China who were interested in obtaining visas to visit the United States, but who were not otherwise eligible to lawfully and properly obtain a non-immigrant visa to visit the United States.

The co-conspirators, after collecting approximately $10,000 each from the Chinese nationals, would provide their names and bogus biographical information to Hsu. Hsu would then write letters on USDA letterhead to be presented to U.S. consulates in China, stating that the Chinese nationals in question were part of a delegation of agricultural specialists who were going to visit the United States as part of an official government delegation. According to the plea documents, Hsu knew when he drafted the letters that the Chinese nationals in question were not agricultural specialists, and that no official meetings would take place.

Plea documents state that during the course of this scheme, which lasted until about April 2002, Hsu drafted dozens of bogus letters in which he attempted to assist several hundred Chinese nationals in fraudulently obtaining visas. Hsu’s wife, Jing Ling Wu Hsu, aided and abetted her husband in this scheme.

Both defendants face a maximum sentence of five years in prison. Sentencing has been set for Oct. 22, 2003.

This case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Peter R. Zeidenberg and Noah D. Bookbinder of the Public Integrity Section at the U.S. Department of Justice, headed by Section Chief Noel Hillman, and investigated by the Diplomatic Security Service and the USDA Office of Inspector General.

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