Maryland Man Pleads Guilty to Fraudulent Employment Visa Scheme

Jae Won Lee, 38, of Rockville, MB, has pleaded guilty to two counts of causing others to make false statements on visa applications filed with the National Visa Center in Portsmouth, Acting United States Attorney Donald Feith reported in a statement.

Lee worked with an emigration company in Seoul, South Korea, that helped South Koreans obtain employment-based visas to immigrate to the United States. From in and around March 2008, through in and around December 2014, Lee recruited various U.S. employers, including Wallace Enterprises, Inc. d/b/a The Cleaning Authority, a company in Falls Church, VA, to file various documents falsely representing to the United States government that they would hire certain visa applicants if the applicants received employment-based visas, when, in actuality, no positions were available for the applicants.

Lee told some employers they were not required to hire the applicants and he paid or offered to pay some employers for filing false documents. Lee also falsely informed visa applicants that Wallace or other employers would hire them if they were granted visas. That caused the applicants to unwittingly file Applications for Immigrant Visa and Alien Registration with the National Visa Center that contained materially false information identifying Wallace and other companies as the U.S. employers who would hire them if they were issued visas.

Lee’s actions resulted in applicants receiving employment-based visas when there was no job waiting for them in the United States. Lee is facing a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000. A sentencing hearing has been scheduled for Nov. 3, 2015.

This case was investigated by the offices of the Inspectors General for the Department of State and the Department of Labor. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Mark S. Zuckerman.