NEW YORK — Two major Trump donors from Long Island ran a multimillion-dollar immigration fraud scheme, tricking foreigners into believing they’d get green cards and political access for investing in an upstate real estate project, federal prosecutors charge.
Sherry Li and Lianbo “Mike” Wang, who pumped more than $600,000 into President Donald Trump’s failed reelection campaign, were charged Monday in Brooklyn federal court.
Li was photographed with Trump and first lady Melania Trump at a 2017 fundraiser. She and Wang are accused of running the $27 million real estate scam and acting as straw donors to help foreigners skirt bans on U.S. political contributions and gain access to politicians.
Li, 50, and Wang, 45, donated $600,000 to the Trump Victory Fund to get a dozen people from China and Singapore into a June 28, 2017, fundraiser at Trump’s D.C. hotel, according to a criminal complaint.
The money allegedly came from the foreign nationals – a violation of federal law barring foreign contributions to U.S. politicians.
There’s no indication in the criminal complaint that Li and Wang got anything more than fundraiser face-time with Trump in exchange for their donation.
Li and Wang used the appearance of that access, though, to bolster their claims to investors that plans to build an educational complex in upstate New York would go through, even though they didn’t even have the necessary local permits, prosecutors allege.
“Tens of millions of dollars…
