Taiwanese man sentenced to nearly 6 years in prison for bribery and forging a passport

ALBANY, N.Y. — A Taiwanese man, who is also a U.S. permanent resident, was sentenced to 69 months in federal prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, for bribery and forging a Chinese passport. The sentence is the result of two separate investigations, one conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and New York State Police (NYSP), and the other by the FBI.

Yang Chia Tien, 60, of Flushing, N.Y., was also ordered to pay $5,000 in restitution and $6,400 in forfeiture. The sentence is the result of two separate criminal investigations.

Tien had pleaded guilty to three counts of bribery as brought forth by the ICE HSI and NYSP investigation in January 2010; and in May 2011, one count of forging a Chinese passport as investigated by the FBI.

In 2008, ICE HSI special agents in Albany initiated an investigation to identify, disrupt and prosecute organizations and individuals who were attempting to facilitate the sale of fraudulently obtained "genuine" immigration documents to individuals who were in the United States illegally.

The main targets of this investigation initiated, arranged and were present at numerous recorded undercover meetings and received thousands of dollars in commissions from their customers for orchestrating this illegal activity.

Numerous individuals were identified as seeking to purchase these documents and were willing to pay approximately $40,000 each for the "genuine" documents.

Document and benefit fraud pose a severe threat to national security and public safety because they create a vulnerability that may enable terrorists, criminals and illegal aliens to gain entry to and remain in the United States. To learn more, click here.