Man poses as father of brother’s child

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested yesterday a man who allegedly lied in an application for a U.S. passport for his nephew.

Zhenyan Cheng, a Chinese national, allegedly posed as the father of his brother’s child. Cheng’s brother, Xigao Cheng, departed the CNMI for China on Sept. 16, 2011, and has not since returned to the Commonwealth, according to ICE special agent Ryan K. Faulkner.

Cheng appeared with court-appointed counsel, Bruce Berline at yesterday’s initial appearance hearing. The preliminary and detention hearings were scheduled for Thursday, April 12, at 3pm.

U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona remanded Cheng to the custody of the U.S. Marshal.

Special agent Faulkner stated in an affidavit that, on March 29, 2012 at 9:50am, Homeland Security Investigation agents were conducting a surveillance of a car.

Faulkner said the agents observed Cheng and a woman, later identified as Aifang Ye, as they exited the vehicle in Garapan. Cheng was observed carrying an infant child.

Faulkner said they approached Ye and Cheng and identified themselves as federal agents.

As he was talking with the driver, Faulkner said he observed two Chinese passports on the front passenger seat. Finding it odd that a single person would be in possession of more than one passport, Faulkner asked the driver who owned the passports. The driver pointed to his passengers-Ye and Cheng-whom he had just dropped off. The driver later disclosed that he had just brought the two from the Saipan Passport Office, where they applied for a U.S. passport.

Special agent Michael Lansangan asked Ye and Cheng for any form of identification. Both replied that their identification documents were in a room at the Summer Holiday Hotel.

At the hotel, Cheng got his Chinese passport and showed it to Lansangan, who expressed himself satisfied that the passport belonged to Cheng, who has current conditional parole, giving him immigration status.

Faulkner informed Lansangan that he was in possession of two Chinese passports bearing the names of Xigao Cheng and Ye.

Faulkner said that based on the information contained in the passports, they determined that both Xigao Cheng and Ye had expired conditional parole and did not have status to be in the United States.

Using the driver as translator, Faulkner said he asked Ye who Xigao Cheng was. Ye told Faulkner that he was holding the passport of her husband (Xigao Cheng), who had gone back to China on Sept. 16, 2011. Ye claimed that her husband mailed his Chinese passport to her on Saipan so that she could use it in listing him as the child’s father in obtaining a China Travel Document from the Chinese Consulate in the U.S.

Ye further explained that Xigao Cheng and Zhenyan Cheng are bothers.

Faulkner said he contacted the Diplomatic Security Service on suspicion that Cheng may have passed himself off as his brother Xigao Cheng during the application process for the U.S. passport.

Faulkner said that on Wednesday, the Diplomatic Security Service provided him a photocopy of an application for a U.S. passport, along with a CNMI birth certificate in the name of Jessie Junle Cheng.

Faulkner said an examination of these documents revealed that Ye and Xigao Cheng are listed as the birth parents of the child.

Faulkner said he and Lansangan talked with a U.S. passport agent on Wednesday at the Saipan Passport Office. The passport agent explained that when both biological parents are listed on a birth certificate, it is a requirement that both parents are present during the application process.

The passport agent told the special agents that, on March 29, 2012, she verbally administered the oath to both Ye and the man whom she believed to be Xigao Cheng.

The passport agent said that Xigao Cheng bore a similar physical resemblance to the defendant so she did not question his true identity.

Faulkner said during their interview with the driver on Wednesday, the driver admitted that when they left the Saipan Passport Office, he asked Cheng if he was the baby’s father. According to the driver, the defendant confessed that his brother, Xigao Cheng, is in fact the father of the child, Faulkner said.

The driver told the special agents that he knew that a crime was committed but was reluctant to report this to law enforcement.