Former purported senior living community developer Victoria Chan permanently lost her license to practice law in California this quarter after having pleaded guilty to a multimillion dollar green card fraud scheme in 2018.
Chan was among 22 California attorneys disbarred by the state Bar Association in the third quarter, according to information released this month.
Chan pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit visa fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and international money laundering for exploiting the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program. The program, administered by US Citizenship and Immigration Services, provides permanent green cards to foreigners in exchange for their investing at least $500,000 in an American business visa program that creates at least 10 new American jobs.
According to the State Bar of California, Chan admitted to federal authorities that she submitted approximately 130 fraudulent petitions for EB-5 visas, and a business operated by Chan and her father either stole or refunded to foreign nationals much of the tens of millions of dollars collected from them.
As McKnight’s Senior Living previously reported, from 2008 to 2017, according to the federal government, Chan and her father used their company, California Investment Immigration Fund LLC, to convince 100 foreign Chinese nationals — some on China’s Most Wanted list — to invest more than $50 million in exchange for green cards. The company shut down operations shortly after federal prosecutors filed lawsuits to seize the properties bought with proceeds from the scheme, indicating that its EB-5 projects focused on financing and developing commercial and mixed-use real estate projects, including senior living communities and other housing, hotels, restaurants and retail.
As part of a plea agreement in 2018, Victoria Chan was ordered to pay $2.5 million in restitution. She was sentenced to one day in prison and required to forfeit eight personal properties worth $25 million. Chan’s license to practice law also was suspended at that time.
