A Washington man has been accused by federal prosecutors of fraudulently targeting people in the Vietnamese community within Connecticut and other US states over an online scheme that claimed to offer legal sponsorship for undocumented immigrants attempting to get from Vietnam to the United States.
In-court documents demonstrate that Hai Van Nguyen advertised on Facebook, claiming that his clients would be able to get legally enter the United States via his New Saigon Entertainment company and within five years be able to get a green card and eventually become a US citizen.
Federal prosecutors claim that Nguyen was able to convince two people in the Vietnamese community within Connecticut to assist him with finding more clients and to collect deposits for him in Arizona, Connecticut, Maine and South Carolina, although there were also other victims of the fraud in Texas and Ohio.
Prosecutors allege that Nguyen is responsible for stealing in excess of $500,000 from people who wanted to help members of their family to come to live and work legally in the United States. A 23 count indictment was returned by the grand jury in Lynwood in Washington, including conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, 20 counts of wire fraud, and two counts of mail fraud.
Nguyen was allegedly charging clients as much as $35,000 per person for his fraudulent “services”. It is not clear whether or not Nguyen was represented by an attorney during the court hearing.