Man pleads guilty to lying to a federal officer

A man indicted in federal court of lying to a federal officer has pleaded guilty.

Guo Hua Lu pleaded guilty Friday to the indictment charging him with false statement to a federal officer as part of a plea deal. The offense carries a maximum penalty of not more than five years of imprisonment and a fine not to exceed $250,000.

Attorney Steven Pixley is private counsel for Lu.

U.S. District Court for the NMI Magistrate Judge Heather L. Kennedy, who presided over the hearing, set the sentencing hearing for April 7, 2017 at 9am.

Kennedy presided over the hearing as NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona was off-island at that time.

Pixley informed the court that the sentence may result in the range of six months and that he would be working with U.S. Probation Office to expedite the sentencing hearing date.

Assistant U.S. attorney James Benedetto is counsel for the U.S. government.

After the hearing, Lu was remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshal.

On Oct. 6, 2016, Lu lied to special agent Vincent Carpenter of the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service in connection with the preparation of a document needed to process a U.S. passport.

Specifically, Lu told Carpenter that he never supplied, made, or coordinated a single Chinese certificate that was submitted to the U.S. Passport in Saipan “for processing of Ms. Shi’s son.”

Lu also told Carpenter that “I never provided her single certificate, also I have no knowledge that single certificate is true or not. I did help her to get that.”

Lu’s statements and representations were not true as in fact, he had arranged for the preparation of the single notarial certificate and its subsequent delivery to Saipan from China, in exchange for $750.

Lu requested that Miss Shi, on whose behalf Lu prepared a U.S. Passport application in the name of her (Shi) infant son, send him (Lu) her official Chinese identification card number, U.S. visa, and a passport-sized photo, so that he could arrange for the preparation of the notarial certificate.

The notarial certificate was sent via DHL from Jin Fa Zhou in Fuqing, China, to Lu on Saipan. Lu delivered the DHL envelope containing the notarial certificate and a completed U.S. Passport application for Shi’s son to Shi at the U.S. Passport Office on Saipan.

Shi signed the passport application and submitted it to the Passport Office.

Subsequent review of the notarial certificate by fraud prevention manager Elizabeth Holcombe of the U.S. Consulate in Shanghai, China, established that the notarial certificate was fraudulent.

Holcombe contacted the notary in China from which the notarial certificate was purportedly issued. The numbers on the notarial certificate and supporting documents did not exist in the notary’s records. The name of the notary who purportedly issued the notarial certificate is not a notary of that office. Shi’s name did not appear in the notary’s records as ever having applied for any notary service.

Lu obtained or arranged another notarial certificate of single status for a prior client, Rui Lui, in 2015 that was also fraudulent.

Prior to making the statements and representations, Carpenter had advised Lu that it was a federal crime to lie to a federal agent.