Birth Tourism Business Owner Forfeits Murrieta Home In Plea Deal

MURRIETA, CA — A Chinese national who pleaded guilty for her part in running an Orange County-based "birth tourism" scheme will forfeit her Murrieta Home along with $850,000 and multiple Mercedes-Benz vehicles as part of her guilty plea, according to court records.

Dongyuan Li, 41 of Irvine, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit immigration fraud and a count of visa fraud, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. She was scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 16.

She operated a birth tourism company in Irvine and China called "You Win USA Vacation Services Corp.," according to her plea agreement. Her company advertised that more than 500 customers had been served, according to her indictment.

Twenty upscale Irvine apartments were used to operate the business. The indictment alleged that Li's customers paid between $40,000 to $80,000 for the experience to have their babies achieve U.S. citizenship during their extended stay.

Li received $3 million in international wire transfers from China in two years, prosecutors said. She is just one of 19 defendants indicted in the scheme where wealthy foreign nationals arrange to have children in the U.S. to gain citizenship.