Oyster Bay $30M Chinese Scammers Face Prison

By Rupert Deedes

For more than a decade, Sherry Xue Li and Lianbo “Mike” Wang of Oyster Bay promoted ventures in New York under the name “China City of America.” Now both are convicted federal criminal felons facing years in prison for running a $30 million-plus "Ponzi scheme."

Li and Wang told prospective backers—many of them in China—that their money would not only help build a private educational campus, but would also obtain American "green cards" through an EB-5 program; access to prominent politicians; and investment returns (including an eventual IPO).

In 2022, federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York unsealed a complaint charging Li and Wang with: (1) wire-fraud conspiracy, (2) money-laundering conspiracy, and (3) conspiracy to defraud the United States by obstructing the Federal Election Commission’s enforcement of campaign-finance law. 

Agents alleged the pair raised tens of millions of dollars on false promises and then used investor funds—rather than their own—to buy their way into high-dollar political fundraisers and to make unlawful campaign contributions in their own names. Both were arrested that day.

The complaint described an intricate, multi-layered scheme: roughly $16.5 million from EB-5 seekers promised permanent residency, plus additional millions from stock purchasers who were told that the company would go public.

Prosecutors said the “green cards” never materialized, the IPO never happened, and the TEC campus never got beyond showy but insubstantial steps – all the while, large sums were diverted to shell companies, personal spending, and political donations which masked foreign sources.

A distinctive feature of the case was the political-access angle. Prosecutors said Li and Wang collected money from foreign nationals and then unlawfully contributed those funds under their own names to various U.S. political committees.

One such contribution led to the couple being invited to attend a June 2017 fundraiser where Li posed for photos with then-President Donald Trump and the First Lady. Those images were later used in promotional materials to impress prospective investors. 

The government’s filings and subsequent coverage emphasized that the "straw" donations were financed by foreign-sourced funds - mostly from China - and then routed through the defendants.

The charges spotlight the threat to fair elections “free from unlawful foreign influence.” The unlawful-contribution theory here wasn’t that foreign nationals gave directly, but that Li and Wang allegedly used investor funds to make contributions in their own names—classic straw-donor behavior that masks a foreign source. The defendants then leveraged photo-ops to market credibility to future investors, according to the government.

Public records show the original “China City of America” proposal never secured local approvals, and the successor TEC concept never matured into an accredited, operating campus. The land became a "stage set" for investor tours and renderings rather than the revenue-generating institution investors were promised.

Lianbo Mike Wang is now serving a five-year federal sentence imposed in 2024 after his guilty plea.

Sherry Xue Li pleaded guilty on July 30th, where she agreed to forfeit $31.5 million and three properties and faces up to 20 years in prison at a December 2025 sentencing. She has been detained since her 2022 arrest.