Chinese woman wanting US citizenship is scammed out of $500,000 by fake agent, feds say
A Chinese woman who wanted to become a U.S. citizen was scammed out of $500,000 by a man she trusted to quickly secure a green card for her, according to federal prosecutors.
The man, Tommy Aijie Da Silva Weng, posed as a federal law enforcement agent to gain her trust in 2016, then “strung (her) along with a series of lies about why the process was delayed for approximately eight years,” prosecutors said.
Weng, a resident of Queens, New York, told the woman that if she paid $500,000, he could help get her an expedited green card under the EB-5 Program by leveraging his purported law enforcement connections, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.
After trusting him for several years, she started to become increasingly suspicious of Weng by 2022, prosecutors wrote in court documents.
Now, an indictment charges Weng, 49, with wire fraud, mail fraud and impersonating a federal law enforcement officer, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release. He’s pleaded not guilty to the charges, court records show.
Weng, who’s also known as “Tommy Weng Da Silva” and “Jacky,” was arrested March 21, according to prosecutors.
His federal defender, Jullian Harris-Calvin, declined McClatchy News’ request for comment March 24.
The visa fraud scheme
Weng first met the woman, identified only as “Jane Doe,” during a meeting in China in June 2016, according to the indictment. At the time, the woman was living in the U.S.
After the woman was introduced to Weng, he pretended to be a federal U.S. law enforcement officer and told her he was recruiting investors on behalf of the U.S. to build hotels in California, the indictment says.
“Weng told Jane Doe that investors in this project would be eligible to apply for a green card under the EB-5 Program,” prosecutors wrote in the indictment.
He showed her a law enforcement badge and his business card, which represented he belonged to the “Federal Officers Police Association,” according to prosecutors.
Weng told the woman that if she invested a minimum of $500,000 with him, she could get a green card within two years, the indictment says.
Then, he took advantage of her financially, according to prosecutors.
Over the course of his scheme, Weng later told the woman that he was a U.S. Department of Homeland Security employee and had gotten a new job with INTERPOL in Italy, according to prosecutors.
During his arrest on March 21, authorities found multiple documents that listed him as a law enforcement officer, including a card that said he was from the “International Police Organization,” court documents say.
On the back of his cellphone, Weng had a card holder with a logo for INTERPOL, which stands for the International Criminal Police Organization, according to court documents.
Prosecutors said Weng also drove a pickup truck with a vanity license plate mentioning “ICE,” a likely reference to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
This isn’t the first time he’s posed as a federal agent, according to prosecutors.
Impersonating an FBI agent
Weng was previously prosecuted in an unrelated case after he pretended to be an FBI agent, prosecutors wrote in court documents.
As a result, the FBI arrested him in December 2015, according to prosecutors.
From June 2013 to March 2015, Weng was accused of posing as a special agent with the FBI to recruit men as confidential informants, “endangering their lives” as a result, prosecutors wrote in court filings.
In that case, he pleaded guilty to illegal use of official badges in February 2016, then was sentenced to time served in April 2016, according to prosecutors.
In another court filing, prosecutors wrote that in an interview following Weng’s arrest on March 21, he said “he had never portrayed himself as a federal law enforcement officer, and that his prior arrest and prosecution accusing him of portraying himself as an FBI agent was a “‘mistake.’”
Weng is accused of keeping nearly all the money Jane Doe paid to him in the hopes of receiving U.S. citizenship.
Between January 2024 and March 2024, Weng refunded the woman $75,000, according to court documents.
She’s still owed $426,500, prosecutors said.
Following his indictment, the government argued in support of Weng’s detention ahead of trial, saying he’s a flight risk with “extensive ties to China, which has no extradition treaty with the United States,” court records show.
Weng has been ordered detained pending trial, according to court records.
“For nearly eight years, Tommy Weng allegedly curated a false persona of a federal law enforcement officer with flashy props and empty assurances of guaranteed lawful status to swindle a vulnerable victim of hundreds of thousands of dollars,” FBI Acting Assistant Director in Charge Leslie Backschies said in a statement.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office asks anyone who might have any tips about Weng to email the agency at NY_WengTips@fbi.gov.
This story was originally published March 24, 2025 at 5:42 PM with the headline "Chinese woman wanting US citizenship is scammed out of $500,000 by fake agent, feds say."
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