Poplar Bluff restaurant owner sentenced for immigration crimes

A Poplar Bluff, Mo., business owner accused of harboring and transporting illegal aliens working at her restaurant will spend the next year in federal prison and forfeit several pieces of real estate, vehicles and cash to the government.

Hua Huang, aka Christina Huang, owner of the then Mongolian Grill China Buffet, was sentenced Monday to one year in prison by U.S. District Judge Stephen Limbaugh Jr., according to the Federal prosecutor's office.

The business license on file with the Poplar Bluff City Clerk lists Hua Huang as the owner of the restaurant, which, as of Jan. 5, now is known as the Asian Buffet Inc.

Upon her release from prison, Huang reportedly will be placed on a two-year period of supervised release, which includes six months of home confinement.

As part of the plea agreement, Huang agreed to forfeit the real property located at 1132, 1134 and 1136 Sunset Drive; real property located at 1016 Velma St.; personal property consisting of a 2008 Toyota Highlander and a 2005 Chevrolet passenger van; and personal property consisting of about $35,000 in U.S. currency.

This comes after the 36-year-old pleaded guilty in December to the felonies of harboring an illegal immigrant, transporting an illegal immigrant, employing an illegal immigrant and one count each of structuring a financial transaction and to commit visa fraud.

The charges against Huang were the result of an investigation by officers with the Poplar Bluff Police Department and agents for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with the Department of Homeland Security Investigations in a criminal worksite enforcement operation.

That investigation culminated in August with five restaurant workers suspected of being in this country illegally being arrested as federal authorities executed search warrants on the restaurant and three homes.

Huang was arrested outside her restaurant in the Mansion Mall Marketplace in October on the federal indictment.

According to the Federal prosecutor's, between January 2009 and August, Huang regularly employed a number of illegal aliens to work at her place of employment. Two of those alien employees were Noe Martinez Padilla, a citizen of Mexico, and You Zhong Li, a citizen of China.

Li told Huang he was not in the United States legally. Huang provided Li with an identification card in the name of Gang Bing, which she told him to use if he was questioned.

Padilla also told Huang that he did not have legal status in the United States.

During the terms of this employment, Huang provided residential housing for both employees at 802 Lester St. and 1016 Velma St. and provided them with transportation to and from their place of work at the China Buffet Mongolian Grill on a daily basis.

The defendant, Hua Huang, and her father, Xiong Sheng Huang, reportedly entered into a written contract with her uncle, Gang Bing Huang, which provided Gang Bing Huang would marry Chinese citizen Qui Ping Zheng for the sole purpose of obtaining United States visas for Zheng and her two children.

The contract provided Hua Huang and her father would provide Gang Bing Huang with $140,000 to be paid in three installments, $15,000 initially, $110,000 to be paid when Zheng and her two children, Shu Bin Zheng and Yi Mei Zheng, obtained their U.S. visas, and $15,000 when they obtained their U.S. green cards.

The contract further provided Gang Bing Huang would travel to China and enter into marriage with Zheng.

Huang and her father would advance funds to Gang Bing Huang to purchase a condominium in Fuzhou, China, so Zheng and Gang Bing Huang could establish a household and Gang Bing Huang and Zheng would return the condominium to Hua Huang and her father once Zheng obtained visas for her and her children.

The contract also provided Gang Bing Huang would return to the United States and make application for U.S. visas for Zheng and her two children as his "lawful" wife and stepchildren. Gang Bing Huang agreed not to divorce Zheng until she and her children had secured legal status in the United States.

As part of the contract, in exchange for their visas, Zheng and her two children would work for Huang and her father in the United States for a period of three years each. If Zheng or her children did not work for Xiong Sheng Huang for three years, they were to pay a total of $200,000 to him for the release of their work commitment.

On about April 11, 2007, $15,000 reportedly was provided to Gang Bing Huang per the terms of the contract.

Gang Bing Huang married Zheng in Fuzhou, China, on July 3, 2007. Hua Huang and her father reportedly provided another $10,000 in expenses, including costs for transferring households, phone and utility expenses and attorney's fees.

On Sept., 28, 2007, Gang Bing Huang filed with the U.S. government, under penalty of perjury, a Form I-130 Petition for Alien Visa on behalf of Zheng and her two children containing false material statements and concealing material facts.

In December 2008, Gang Bing Huang and his niece traveled to China. The cost for their flights were charged as "expenses" of the contract.

With her plea, Huang also admitted on Sept. 17 she committed the offense of structuring a financial transaction in order to prevent a financial institution from reporting the transaction.

Huang admitted taking $27,000 in cash into the Sterling Bank of Poplar Bluff and making three separate deposits of $9,000 into three different bank accounts, and then immediately drawing upon each account to obtain three $9,000 cashiers checks, in an effort to evade the bank's obligation to report transactions of $10,000 or more.