{"id":52666,"date":"2020-12-03T12:47:51","date_gmt":"2020-12-03T04:47:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mediaintel.asia\/?p=165126"},"modified":"2020-12-03T12:47:51","modified_gmt":"2020-12-03T04:47:51","slug":"llodo-birth-tourism-scheme-led-to-119-babies-born-on-long-island-prosecutors-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/2020\/12\/03\/llodo-birth-tourism-scheme-led-to-119-babies-born-on-long-island-prosecutors-say\/","title":{"rendered":"[LLODO] \u2018Birth tourism\u2019 scheme led to 119 babies born on Long Island, prosecutors say"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Six people were indicted Tuesday in connection with a \u201c birth tourism \u201d and money-laundering scheme in Long Island, N.Y. , that resulted in 119 children being born in the United States, federal prosecutors said Wednesday. From January 2017 to September 2020, 117 mothers traveled from Turkey to give birth in the U.S. so their children could obtain citizenship and benefits. It resulted in $2.1 million in losses to Medicaid, authorities said.
\n\u201cUsing Internet ads, the defendants perpetrated an international fraud that relied upon a parade of women who paid them thousands of dollars in fees in order to enter the United States under false pretenses, to give birth here,\u201d Acting U.S. Attorney Seth DuCharme said. \u201cThe defendants cashed in on the desire for birthright citizenship, and the American taxpayer ultimately got stuck with the $2.1 million bill.\u201d
\nCHINESE WOMAN LINKED TO \u2018BIRTH TOURISM\u2019 SCHEME GETS 10 MONTHS IN PRISON
\nFive people were arrested Tuesday. The sixth defendant was not named.
\nThe defendants \u2014 four Turkish nationals and two U.S. citizens \u2014 charged are Sarah Kaplan, 46, of Center Moriches \u2014 also known as \u201cHatun Kaplan\u201d and \u201cHatin Kaplan\u201d \u2014 Ibrahim Aksakal, 48, of East Patchogue, also known as \u201cDennis\u201d; Enes Burak Cakiroglu, 24, of East Patchogue; Fiordalia Marte, 41, of Lindenhurst, also known as \u201cLisa\u201d; and Edgar Rodriguez, 48, of Farmingville, known as \u201cEddie\u201d, the DOJ said.
\nThe group is accused of setting up \u201cbirth houses\u201d across Suffolk County where the expectant mothers could stay until giving birth. They were also advised to submit tourist visa applications falsely stating they were traveling to the U.S. for tourist and business purposes, prosecutors said.
\nAksakal, Cakiroglu and Kaplan are charged with conspiring to commit visa fraud, health care fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. Marte and Rodriguez were charged with conspiring to commit health care fraud, wire fraud and money laundering.
\nMarte and Rodriguez were professionally trained and certified to assist individuals in applying for health coverage, resulting in the Medicaid fraud, prosecutors said.
\nThe group allegedly used Turkish-language Facebook pages and a Turkish-language website to advertise its services. One site, \u201cMy Baby Should Be Born in America,\u201d allegedly advertised transportation and hospital expenses, medical care and help with applying for U.S. citizenship on behalf of the children.
\n\u201cIf you believe your baby should be born in the USA and become a U.S. citizen then you are at the right place,\u201d one ad read.
\nFees averaged around $7,500 \u2014 nearly all paid in cash \u2014 and included transportation, pre-natal care, delivery and post-natal medical care, and assistance with applying for U.S. citizenship on behalf of the America-born children, the indictment said. The women also were instructed to conceal their pregnancies, prosecutors said.
\nIn total, the suspects pocketed $750,000 in fees from the scheme, authorities said.
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\nThe defendants each face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
\n\u201cThis indictment should send a message to others exploiting birth tourism \u2014 bilking the system and swindling our residents is not tolerated here in Suffolk,\u201d said Geraldine Hart, commissioner of the Suffolk County Police Department.
\nIt was not clear what, if any, implications the case will have on the citizenship of the children. Related posts:<\/p>\n

This data comes from MediaIntel.Asia's Media Intelligence and Media Monitoring Platform<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Six people were indicted Tuesday in connection with a \u201c birth tourism \u201d and money-laundering scheme in Long Island, N.Y. , that resulted in 119 children being born in the United States, federal prosecutors said Wednesday. From January 2017 to Septembe…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":253,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[137,4,288,194,1108,465,1542,940,484,1367,100],"tags":[2210,10484,3472,1845,1816,10400],"class_list":["post-52666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fraud","category-internet","category-medicine","category-news-chinese-law","category-police","category-social-media","category-technology","category-tourism","category-united-states","category-usa","category-website","tag-america","tag-china-travel-hospitality","tag-chinese","tag-facebook","tag-prison","tag-turkey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52666"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/253"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52666"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52667,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52666\/revisions\/52667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}