Pastor accused of US immigration offenses
December 24 2009 by Liam Clifford
A Pastor from Southern California has been accused of US immigration crimes after helping foreigners gain US student visas fraudulently.
The US immigration authorities
charged Samuel Chai Cho Oh on Tuesday. He is accused of charging prospective
students large sums of money for fake diplomas that he gave out at ‘graduation
ceremonies’ at a Christian university he owns. The ‘graduates’ had never
attended the university.
Over 100 students from countries including
Japan, South Korea and Thailand were offered places at California Union
University in Fullerton. The fake establishment acted as a cover and allowed
them to remain living in the US on student visas.
Oh is denying the
charges and his lawyer says, "he's a good man and doesn't know anything about
any of this."
US Immigration authorities think that Oh made as much as
$50,000 a month through his fake documents scam. He would charge up to $10,000
to file documents for the students, which appeared to offer them a place at his
university, allowing them to apply for a US visa to enable them to study in the
US.
The authorities also discovered that 75 of the 300 students
registered at his university did not regularly attend classes.
See the latest Immigration News
