A Donald Trump donor who once rubbed elbows with the president at a 2017 fundraiser has admitted to running a $31.5 million scam falsely promising green cards and presidential access to her victims.
Sherry Xue Li, 53, pleaded guilty in Long Island Federal Court on Wednesday, admitting to scamming foreigners into believing they’d get green cards and a back channel to Trump for investing in an upstate New York real estate project.
Li and an accomplice, Lianbo “Mike” Wang, 48, were busted in 2022, five years after the duo pumped $600,000 into the Trump Victory Fund to get a dozen people from China and Singapore into a June 28, 2017, fundraiser at Trump’s Washington, D.C., hotel.
The money came from the foreign nationals’ wallets, and they served as straw donors — a violation of federal law barring such contributions to U.S. politicians.
At the time, they were the largest contributors to the fund, which didn’t know about the scam, prosecutors said. Trump is not accused of wrongdoing in the case.
Li posed for a photo with Trump and the first lady at the event, but court filings offered no indication that she and Wang and their foreign guests got anything more than the chance to meet Trump at the event.
Nevertheless, Li and Wang used that photo, and the illusion of influence, to bolster their claims they’d be able to build a lucrative educational complex upstate, even though they didn’t even have the necessary local permits, prosecutors said.
Wang pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years last year, but Li made prosecutors wait for several months before accepting an agreement — because she believed the Trump administration would drop the case after the president’s reelection.
“Judge, I believe President Trump signed executive order basically mandating government to stop persecute political opponents, and I do believe my case is hard to argue it is not political persecute case,” Li told Judge Gary Brown at a Jan. 24 hearing. “My case thinks Trump photos with me is a target hit. It’s harder for anyone to argue that it’s not political persecution. Therefore, there is a base for the government to throw out the case.”
But with a December trial date approaching, she changed her tune Wednesday, pleading guilty to money laundering conspiracy and conspiracy to defraud the United States by obstructing the Federal Election Commission’s administration of campaign finance laws.
“Today Ms. Li made the incredibly difficult decision to plead guilty and put this behind her. We look forward to presenting the full contours of these events to the court at sentencing,” her lawyer Kevin Keating said Wednesday.
As part of her plea, she agreed to forfeit $31.5 million and property at three locations to the government, and could face a maximum 20 years behind bars when she’s sentenced in December. She’s been held in the MDC Brooklyn federal jail since her arrest.
“Li defrauded more than 150 victims in the United States and abroad through years of lies and deception and sought to profit by selling access to the democratic process,” U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella said. “In doing so, she attempted to corrupt a fundamental institution in this country — fair and transparent elections free from unlawful foreign influence.”
Wang and Li, who lived together in Oyster Bay, L.I., raised about $31.5 million from more than 150 investors in their company, Thompson Education Center.
The cash included $16.5 million from people who were hoping to take advantage of the EB-5 visa program, which offers the possibility of permanent resident status to foreigners who invest at least $500,000 in new businesses in high-unemployment or rural areas.
But none of them received green cards, despite promises from Li and Wang, the feds said.
An additional $15 million allegedly came from investors they promised would make money at an initial public offering, which never took place.
Li and Wang had initially proposed in 2011 a sprawling Chinese cultural theme park in upstate Sullivan County that Li referred to as a “Chinese Disneyland” serving 1.5 million visitors a year, according to court documents. But that plan met resistance from upstate residents and officials, so they scaled it back and instead announced they’d build the Thompson Educational Center in Thompson, Sullivan County.
They presented it as a “multiphase” project, starting with a $150 million complex that included college classroom buildings, a sports facility, student activity centers and a half-dozen dorm buildings. They paid for architecture plans and minor construction work, but little else.
Instead, they used the money to line their pockets, buying fancy clothes and jewelry, and paying for fine dining and vacations. All the while, the government was rejecting their investors’ green card applications, because immigration officials didn’t find their business plan credible, according to prosecutors.
