Houston lawyer charged in China immigration scam

Houston Chronicle:

In the central Chinese province of Hubei, the tall American retiree was known as an environmental activist to his admiring neighbors.

A retired lawyer from Houston, Kenneth Lee Rothey's campaigns to clean trash from city streets attracted many volunteers. It was a heartwarming story told on state TV and Internet blogs of an American doing good in China. He even earned a nickname, ''the foreign Lei Feng," a reference to a fervent party supporter honored by former Communist leader Mao Zedong.

But unbeknownst to Hubei's residents, thousands of miles away in Houston, Rothey was known for something entirely different: He was wanted for visa fraud and money laundering violations.

Rothey's earlier life caught up to him Monday as he stood before a U.S. magistrate in Alexandria, Va.

Rothey, 69, faces a long list of federal immigration charges he sought to avoid by fleeing to China three years ago and will be returned for trial in Houston.

...

According to a statement from U.S. Attorney Don DeGabrielle in Houston, the immigration scheme involved eight U.S. companies paid to create fictional business connections to firms in China. Rothey and his associates would then apply for visas for Chinese workers, claiming their Chinese companies needed to transfer them to the U.S. Some of the Chinese clients paid up to $100,000 for immigrant and work visas, the government says.

One of Rothey's associates, Horacio Golfarini, 46, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. A second associate, Norman Chapa, 52, received a one-year sentence. One of Rothey's employees, Ricardo Aguirre, 53, was placed on probation after pleading guilty to helping set up the phony business relationships.

"Fraudulent visa schemes are unfair to people who want to come to the U.S. legally, as they reduce the number of visas available to those who want to follow our rules and laws," Rutt said. ''This should be a message to those who think about violating our visa and immigration laws that ICE will pursue criminal charges even if they attempt to hide outside our borders."

...

This is just one of many scams involving Chinese immigrants who are willing to pay handsomely to get in this country. It should be noted that the visas are just the entry level crime. Many of the illegal immigrants int his country are those who overstayed their visas.