Trader, agent found using 2 firms in fraudulent recruitment scheme

The Department of Labor has found a businessman and his agent involved in a fraudulent scheme to recruit three workers from China for non-existing jobs on Saipan, using two dummy firms.

Labor Administrative Hearing Officer Herbert D. Soll sanctioned Kuan Y. Leung, his agent Lin Yubao, and two corporations—Jinji Corp., and Liberty Corp.—in the amount of $2,000 each and disqualified them from hiring nonresident workers.

Soll found the four respondents jointly indebted to each of the three workers—Zhou Yincheng, Lu Yinxiang and Zhang Naiqin—in the amount of $10,370, for a total of $31,110 representing illegal fees and transportation costs.

All four respondents were also found jointly liable to pay each of the three complainants $6,864, for a total of $20,592 representing anticipated wages that would have been earned had the contracts been legitimate.

Soll said each of the complainants is entitled to transfer should they elect to do so. The workers earlier told Labor they want to go home.

The three workers told Labor it was Yubao who encouraged them to work on Saipan. Lubao has varying family connections with the complainants in their home area of Jiangsu Province, China. Lubao called each of them with the intention of recruiting them to work on Saipan.

Yubao told Yincheng that he has work for him on Saipan as a construction worker. When Yincheng agreed to accept the job, he was told to send photographs, a copy of his passport and other personal information to Saipan.

Yincheng was also asked for the equivalent of $9,745 for processing and recruitment, which the worker paid.

Similar to Yincheng’s recruitment, Yinxiang and Naiqin were told that restaurant work awaited them on Saipan. The two also paid $9,745 for processing and recruitment. They too sent photographs, passport copies and other personal data to Saipan.

The documents were transmitted to the Liberty Corp., where Leung is a shareholder and director.

The Labor records contain, among other things, employment certification indicating that the three complainants are beauticians and have worked in that capacity for the required amount of time. Each of the complainants denied signing any of the documents.

The employer listed on the Labor documents is Jinji Corp.

Jinji Corp. was licensed to operate the Violet Beauty Salon and Barber Shop and the three complainants were contracted to work there. Jinji Corp.’s sole officer, director and shareholder was Leung.

Labor processed the complainants’ applications. Each worker spent $325 on airfare.

Yincheng and Yinxiang arrived in Saipan on Dec. 2, 2006. Naiqin came on Jan. 27, 2007. Yubao met the complainants upon arrival and took them to a location where housing was initially provided.

Yubao took an additional $300 from each of the complainants, claiming that additional processing was necessary.

Soll said each of the complainants made frequent inquiries about when work would start.

Soll said if Leung’s version of the transaction was true, he would have had a considerable investment in bringing the complainants to Saipan, yet he never made contact with them.

The hearing officer said that, on March 29, 2007, Leung wrote to Labor to discharge the three workers as his employees.

“Leung had no intention of employing the complainants. He was the facilitator of a fraudulent scheme to extract money from the unknowing complainants and Yubao was his agent in executing the scheme,” Soll said.

He said Leung used two of the corporations in which he is the sole officer, director and shareholder to perfect the fraudulent scheme.

With respect to another respondent, Ren Jianping, Soll said he attended the first hearings in this case and then returned to China.

Soll said Jianping’s involvement in a portion of the transactions was demonstrated, but not to the point of creating financial liability.

The hearing officer said Labor should consider denying Jianping’s any future applications for employment in the CNMI.