ERO Boston arrests unlawfully present Chinese national convicted of conspiracy to commit securities fraud
BOSTON — Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Boston arrested an unlawfully present citizen of China on immigration charges in Abington, Massachusetts, on April 4. The man was determined to be amenable to removal under the Immigration and Nationality Act.
In September 2019, a citizen of the People’s Republic of China entered the United States as a nonimmigrant and failed to comply with the terms of his admission. He was initially encountered by ERO Boston officers while being held in custody in Rhode Island on federal securities fraud charges in October 2019.
“A grant of admission to the U.S. cannot be used as a cover to engage in conspiracies to profit in the millions of dollars through fraudulent financial schemes,” said ERO Boston Field Office Director Todd Lyons. “This individual was convicted of participating in a multi-year market manipulation effort involving securities traded on the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. He has grossly violated the terms of his admission into the country. Financial crimes are not victimless crimes.”
In August 2022, the foreign national pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud with stock traders in China and the U.S. in a wide-ranging market manipulation conspiracy case prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts.
On Nov. 30, the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts convicted and sentenced the Chinese citizen to time served (three months in prison) and nine months of home detention. He was also ordered to forfeit $7.75 million in illicit proceeds.
The charges grew out of a parallel case that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission described as a stock manipulation scheme that generated more than $35 million of illicit profits on the illegal trading of stock in at least 3,000 U.S.-listed securities.
On Apr. 4, 2023, ERO Boston Fugitive Operations team officers arrested the 40-year-old man in Abington, Massachusetts, and placed him into removal proceedings with the issuance and service of a notice to appear before an immigration judge.
Noncitizens placed into removal proceedings receive their legal due process from federal immigration judges in the immigration courts, which are administered by the Executive Office for Immigration Review within the Department of Justice.
EOIR is a separate entity from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Immigration judges in these courts make decisions based on the merits of each individual case, determining if a noncitizen is subject to a final order of removal or eligible for certain forms of relief from removal. Once a noncitizen is subject to a final order of removal issued by an immigration judge or other lawful means, ICE officers may carry out the removal.
As one of ICE’s three operational directorates, ERO is the principal federal law enforcement authority in charge of domestic immigration enforcement. ERO’s mission is to protect the homeland through the arrest and removal of those who undermine the safety of U.S. communities and the integrity of U.S. immigration laws, and its primary areas of focus are interior enforcement operations, management of the agency’s detained and non-detained populations, and repatriation of noncitizens who have received final orders of removal. ERO’s workforce consists of more than 7,700 law enforcement and non-law enforcement support personnel across 25 domestic field offices and 208 locations nationwide, 30 overseas postings, and multiple temporary duty travel assignments along the border.
Learn more about ERO’s mission to increase public safety in your community on Twitter @EROBoston.
Updated: