Opinion ID: 4558485
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Dean and Dean Brothers, Inc.

Text: Prior to Jimenez’s trial, co-conspirator Christopher Dean pled guilty to an information charging him with conspiracy to commit money laundering. See United States v. Dean, 16-cr-000206 (S.D. Ala. Dec. 7, 2016). Dean testified for the government at Jimenez’s trial. Dean was the general manager of his family’s scrap metal and demolition business, Dean Brothers, Inc., near Mobile, Alabama. In late 2010, friends introduced Dean to defendant Jimenez and a China-based co-conspirator, Tom Wayne, who was Jimenez’s father-in-law. Jimenez pitched to Dean a “program” to allow Chinese nationals to immigrate to the United States by structuring a joint venture between Dean Brothers and a Chinese business, for which Dean would be (and ultimately was) paid $30,000. Dean agreed, and provided Jimenez with Dean 6 Case: 18-10569 Date Filed: 08/25/2020 Page: 7 of 25 Brothers’s business documents, including tax returns, invoices, and “anything [Jimenez] requested.” Jimenez then filed an I-140 petition in Dean Brothers’s name on behalf of Defeng Li, as the Chinese-national beneficiary who ostensibly was to be the executive employed by the joint venture and who would obtain the EB-1C visa to immigrate to the United States. In connection with the I-140 petition, Jimenez submitted a cover letter signed by Dean, and a purported joint venture agreement, also signed by Dean, between Dean Brothers and Defeng Li’s Chinese employer, Anhui Sunny Technology, Co. However, the representations made in the I-140 petition and the joint venture agreement—such as about Dean Brothers and Defeng Li working together in the joint venture—were false, as Li never worked for Dean Brothers and there never was a joint venture. Although Dean signed the joint venture agreement in December 2011, it was backdated to August 31, 2010, before Dean had even met Jimenez and Wayne.2 After traveling to China and meeting several China-based members of the conspiracy, including Bobby Wang, Dean began working directly for Wang. Dean recruited “eligible U.S. companies” in the same way Jimenez did, “to match [them] 2 In its brief, the government explains that the conspirators backdated the joint venture agreements because they believed (perhaps wrongly) that the regulations required the joint venture to have existed for over a year before the I-140 petition was filed. According to Dean, he initially believed Jimenez’s joint venture proposal was legitimate, but he realized it was not when they backdated the joint venture agreement. 7 Case: 18-10569 Date Filed: 08/25/2020 Page: 8 of 25 with foreign companies to petition for executive directors for immigration purposes.” If the business owner agreed to be an I-140 petitioner, Dean asked for the same documents Jimenez had requested from Dean, which were needed to file the I-140 petitions, and then shepherded the documents through to ensure the petition was approved. Dean testified that the documents were falsified or contained misrepresentations to get the petitions approved, and that Jimenez and other conspirators knew this. Dean estimated that he recruited “30-plus” U.S. companies to participate in the scheme, “close to 12” of which had their petitions approved. For his services, Dean netted about “a quarter mill a year” for three years. 3 Wang paid Dean via wire transfers for recruiting the U.S. businesses. 4 In addition to Dean, the government presented testimony from 15 business owners in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, and California who were recruited by either Jimenez or Dean to be I-140 petitioners for the EB-1C work visa scheme. All of the witnesses identified I-140 petitions and supporting documents that contained false statements, forged signatures, or materially misleading information. 3 Dean said his pitch, which was similar to Jimenez’s pitch, was as follows: That we would structure an international joint venture and the venture is not really active so there's not a lot of risk associated with it. And if the Government approves the joint venture or the immigration application, both, then you’ll be—the joint venture will be funded with 30K, and you’ll possibly have a business partner to do future business, a wealthy business partner. Dean told the U.S. businesses that the Chinese nationals would not have to show up for work, but he did not tell them he would be filing false documents in support of the petitions. 4 However, Jimenez paid Dean for the Dean Brothers’s I-140 petition by check. 8 Case: 18-10569 Date Filed: 08/25/2020 Page: 9 of 25 Among those business owners who testified were Shannon “Duke” Middleton and Terri Long, and their testimony illustrates how the fraud scheme worked.