Attorney and Three Businessmen Charged in Immigration Fraud Scheme

PHILADELPHIA—An indictment was unsealed today charging attorney Michael Choi and three business owners with conspiring to violate the federal immigration laws and make false statements to the government, announced United States Attorney Zane David Memeger. Choi is also charged with filing false tax returns for the years 2004, 2005, and 2006, failing to report $1,040,708 in income.

Choi is the principal of a law firm, Choi and Associates, P.C., located in Elkins Park, PA. According to the indictment, from early 2001 to at least June 10, 2008, Choi enlisted business owners, including defendants Sung Mahn Gang, Hee Chan Bang and Keun S. Hwang, and some of Choi’s immigrant alien clients, to engage in a conspiracy to defraud the government and commit crimes against the United States. The indictment also alleges that the defendants arranged for Choi’s alien clients to fraudulently obtain Alien Registration Receipt Cards, commonly known as “green cards,” so that the aliens could remain in the United States when they were not entitled to remain here. Choi is alleged to have provided cash and legal services to business owners, including his co-defendants, to induce them to sign petitions falsely stating that their business intended to employ Choi’s alien clients.

According to the indictment, the defendants presented these false petitions to the United States Department of Labor, and the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which then issued employment documents for the aliens. The defendants, assisted by others, also allegedly caused fraudulent payroll checks to be submitted to USCIS that falsely indicated that the aliens were employed by the businesses owned by Gang, Bang and Hwang. The indictment alleges that, under Choi’s direction, the businesses submitted false W-2 forms to the Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service. Finally, the indictment charges that for the years 2004, 2005, and 2006, Choi filed false tax returns that failed to report approximately $1,040,708. in income.

INFORMATION REGARDING THE DEFENDANTS
NAME ADDRESS AGE OR YEAR OF BIRTH
Michael Choi Huntingdon Valley, PA 54
Sung Mahn Gang Ardmore, PA 60
Hee Chan Bang Marlton, NJ 56
Keun S. Hwang Jenkintown, PA 48

If convicted of all charges, defendant Michael Choi faces a maximum possible sentence of 34 years in prison and a fine of up to $2 million fine; defendants Sung Mahn Gang, Hee Chan Bang and Keun S. Hwang each face a maximum possible sentence of 10 years in priso and a fine of up to $500,000.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations, and Social Security Administration’s Office of Inspector General. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Mary E. Crawley and Andrew J. Schell.