Sherry Xue Li, of Oyster Bay, sentenced to 9 years in fundraising scheme

An Oyster Bay woman was sentenced to 9 years in prison on Friday for her role in a fundraising scheme that falsely promised donors permanent residency status and access to politicians, federal officials said.

U. S. District Judge Gary R. Brown sentenced Sherry Xue Li, 54, after she pleaded guilty to charges of money laundering conspiracy and conspiracy to defraud the United States, according to a news release from the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Joseph Nocella Jr.

Over a span of nearly a decade, Li and her co-conspirator, Lianbo Wang, 48, also of Oyster Bay, defrauded victims who invested more than $31.5 million into a nonexistent upstate development they dubbed the Thompson Education Center, according to the release. Among the investors were foreign nationals from the People’s Republic of China, who were falsely promised their $500,000 investments "would guarantee them lawful permanent residence in the United States," the release said.

In November, Wang pleaded guilty to unlawful monetary transactions and conspiracy to defraud the United States and was sentenced to 5 years in prison, Newsday previously reported.

Li and Wang also collected more than $1 million from foreign nationals as a phony admission price for a fundraising event with President Donald Trump during his first term in office, according to the release. In violation of federal election campaign law, the two then donated $600,000 of those funds under their own names to the fundraising committee hosting the event, "which was unaware of the fraudulent conduct," the release said. Li distributed a photograph of herself with Trump to mislead victims about political support for the fraudulent education center development and their permanent residency.

In a statement, Nocella described Li’s actions as "cynical schemes."

"Li orchestrated an elaborate fraud to steal tens of millions of dollars from more than 150 victims around the world," Nocella said. "She peddled false promises and outright lies to her many investors and stuffed her pockets while they suffered devastating losses. Meanwhile, she sought to obstruct the operation of free and fair elections in our country and sold access to the democratic process to the highest bidder."