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

Heading: government’s trial evidence

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.
Shannon Duke Middleton was the owner of Jet Blast, a “power sport” dealership in Gulfport, Mississippi. In 2013, Jimenez contacted Middleton and pitched the idea of paying Middleton to participate in a business venture to help Chinese millionaires immigrate to the United States. Middleton understood that the prospective Chinese immigrant would never work at his company. Thereafter, in September 2013, Jimenez caused to be filed with CIS an I-140 petition for an EB-1C visa and supporting documentation in Jet Blast’s name on behalf of a Chinese national named Yan Xu. A cover letter submitted to CIS in support of the I-140 petition referenced that, in December 2011, Jet Blast had entered into a joint venture agreement with a Chinese company, Arden Garments Guangzhou, Co. Ltd., and Yan Xu had been appointed the executive director of the joint venture. Middleton had never heard of Yan Xu or Arden Garments, did not employ Yan Xu, did not agree to a joint venture, and did not sign a joint venture agreement or any other documents, including the cover letter and a job offer letter, submitted with the I-140 petition.5 5 The supporting documentation also included a shared Chinese bank account statement showing a “portfolio” of over $2 million and a $300,000 deposit, a description of Yan Xu’s job duties and an organizational chart of the joint venture with Yan Xu as the executive director and 9 Case: 18-10569 Date Filed: 08/25/2020 Page: 10 of 25 The I-140 petition, purportedly filed by Jet Blast on behalf of Yan Xu, states in Part 2 that the petition is filed for a “multinational executive or manager.” Part 6 of the petition represents that Jet Blast will employ Xu in a new, full-time, permanent position, paying her $50,000 per year, with the job title “Executives & Managers.” For the “Nontechnical Description of the Job,” the petition states: “Establishing long-term and mid-term Company objectives, setting of business plans, and the design of business models for the company; Assigning marketing strategies and reforming the business procedures, and strengthening our distribution and client channels; see job offer letter for more.” The cover letter submitted with the I-140 petition and purportedly signed by Middleton states, inter alia, that Arden Garments and Jet Blast have entered into a joint venture agreement and that documents are hereby “submitted to establish that there is a qualifying relationship between Jet Blast and Arden under 8 CFR § 204.5(j)(2)(D),” including: (1) “the Jet Blast Joint Venture Agreement entered on December 1, 2011, and (2) a “Joint Venture Management Conceptual Flow Chart,” and (3) a “Bank Confirmation into Joint Venture in the amount of $300,000.”6 containing the names of some of Jet Blast’s employees. Middleton had never seen any of these documents before and said they were all false. 6 Among the co-conspirators’ emails, federal investigator Don Herrington found one email from Jimenez to his co-conspirators stating that he would soon finish the joint venture agreement for Jet Blast and a subsequent email from Jimenez sending to his co-conspirators the Jet Blast joint venture agreement that ultimately was submitted to CIS with the Jet Blast I-140 10 Case: 18-10569 Date Filed: 08/25/2020 Page: 11 of 25 The cover letter also states that the partners of the joint venture had appointed Xu as the executive director of the joint venture, and attached multiple documents “to establish the executive position to be offered to Ms. Xu,” including a “Job Offer Letter by Jet Blast.” The cover letter includes a section on “Ability to Pay,” stating that “petitioner has submitted its 2012 federal tax returns” and Jet Blast’s “gross income of $147,273.00 is more than able to pay the beneficiary’s proffered wage of $50,000.00 a year.”
Terri Long and her daughter owned Wildflowers Boutique, a women’s clothing store in Orange Beach, Alabama. In September 2011, defendant Jimenez and his father-in-law Tom Wayne approached Long about a business deal to expand her business and start a clothing label using their connections in China. To set up the deal, Long had her bookkeeper give Jimenez business documents he requested, such as bank account records and tax documents. Unbeknownst to Long, Jimenez caused to be filed an I-140 petition for an EB-1C visa in Wildflower Boutique’s name on behalf of Weihua Xu as the Chinese beneficiary. As with Jet Blast’s I-140 petition and supporting documents, the I-140 petition and accompanying cover letter filed in Wildflowers Boutique’s petition. In another email to Jimenez, a co-conspirator was trying to get more information about Jet Blast in order to create the fake bank account statement. 11 Case: 18-10569 Date Filed: 08/25/2020 Page: 12 of 25 name represented that Wildflowers Boutique and the Chinese company, Viva Group Co. Ltd, China, had entered into a joint venture, and the joint venture would employ Weihua Xu as a multinational executive or manager. Long remembered signing documents at Jimenez’s request, but she did not know if she signed the I-140 petition. Long remembered meeting Weihua Xu, the Chinese beneficiary, and others once for lunch and a brief tour of her store. However, Jimenez never discussed with Long filing an I-140 petition for a Chinese national or having Weihua Xu work for Long, and Long did not know the Chinese company, Viva Group, listed on the joint venture agreement with Wildflowers Boutique. Long did not recall signing the joint venture agreement and said that the signature on the agreement did not look like hers and that statements in the agreement about a business relationship with Viva Group were false. Long also did not sign the cover letter accompanying the documentation. Although Long received two checks from Jimenez (totaling about $5,000), she never entered into any business relationship with the Chinese businessperson connected to Jimenez. Jimenez’s signature on one of the checks closely resembled the witness signature on the joint venture agreement.