An alleged Flushing scammer was arrested by FBI agents in Brooklyn on Friday morning after a federal large jury accused him of perpetrating a visa fraud scheme posing as an ICE agent.
Tommy Aijie da Silva Weng, 49, was prosecuted on Friday afternoon in the Federal Court of Brooklyn under an accusation that imputes it for electronic fraud, postal fraud and supplantation of a federal agent of the law, in relation to a scam to disappoint an unidentified Chinese citizen that resides in the United States. Weng assured her that she could help her get a residence card through the EB-5 investor visa program if she invested $ 500,000 with him in a project to build hotels in California.
Weng, also known as “Tommy Weng Da Silva” and “Jacky”, led a red hummer with a personalized registration of New York that said “Bwtice”, in reference to a temple in Flushing that frequents and at the Immigration and Customs Control of US Customs Control (ICE), according to federal prosecutors.
“According to the accusation, Weng made falsely passed through a member of the Federal Order forces to gain the confidence of an unsuspecting victim,” said federal prosecutor John Durham. “The defendant took advantage of the victim’s desire to become an American citizen and pursue the American dream, and then stole not only that dream, but also hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
According to judicial documents, the fraud scheme began in April 2016, shortly after Weng falsely affirmed the victim who was a federal agent. He explained that he could use his connections in the forces of the order to help her obtain the residence card accelerated if she invested half a million dollars with him.
Weng showed him a plaque of the forces of the order and handed him a presentation card of the “Police Federal Officers Association” with his name. On another occasion, he told the victim that he worked for the US National Security Department and that he would be transferred to a new position in Interpol in Milan, Italy.
Based on WENG’s statements, a month later, during a meeting in Flushing, the woman gave her a check for $ 501,500 in the name of Ding Cheng Overseas Management Inc, a Weng company in Brooklyn. Instead of investing the money or presenting a visa application in his name, Weng appropriated the cash and kept the victim deceived with a series of lies about delays in the process for approximately eight years.
“Today, true law agents put the wives to this scammer, and now he will have to answer for his crimes,” Durham said.
Weng was prosecuted on Friday at the Federal Court of Brooklyn before Judge Judge Lara ESHKENAZI. If he is convicted, he faces up to 43 years in federal prison.
“For almost eight years, Tommy Weng supposedly created a false identity as an agent of the federal law with striking accessories and empty promises of a guaranteed legal status to cheat a vulnerable victim with hundreds of thousands of dollars,” said Leslie Backschies, interim director of the FBI in charge of the case. “This alleged impostor turned a respected profession into an elaborated scheme while violating the public’s confidence in the forces of the order.”
Any person with information on crimes committed by Weng must communicate with the FBI to [email protected].
“The FBI will continue to arrest any individual who exploits a position of authority to obtain illicit profits,” Backschies added.
