California couple Michael Liu and Phoebe Dong convicted in Chinese birth tourism scheme
Their firm, USA Happy Baby, charged as much as US$40,000 to help pregnant Chinese women get American citizenship for their newborns
A jury on Friday convicted a Southern California couple of running a business that helped pregnant Chinese women travel to the United States without revealing their intentions to give birth to babies who would automatically have American citizenship.
Michael Liu and Phoebe Dong were found guilty of one count of conspiracy and 10 counts of money laundering in a federal court in Los Angeles.
The case against the pair went to trial nine years after federal authorities searched more than a dozen homes across Southern California in a crackdown on so-called birth tourism operators who authorities said encouraged pregnant women to lie on their visa paperwork and hide their pregnancies and helped the women travel to deliver their babies in the United States.
Liu and Dong were charged in 2019 along with more than a dozen others, including a woman who later pleaded guilty to running a company known as “You Win USA” and was sentenced to 10 months in prison.
Prosecutors and lawyers for the defendants declined to comment in court on Friday.
Prosecutors alleged Liu and Dong’s company “USA Happy Baby” helped several hundred birth tourists between 2012 and 2015 and charged as the tourists much as US$40,000 for services including apartment rentals during their stays in Southern California.
