Posted on: Thursday, May 31, 2001

Two charged in immigration fraud

By David Waite
Advertiser Staff Writer

Two women have been charged with violating federal immigration laws for allegedly recruiting women from Hong Kong to work as hostesses at a Kapi'olani-area bar.

In separate criminal complaints filed yesterday in federal court, Maria De Fatima Cheung and Annie N. Kung were charged with inducing women from Hong Kong to enter and stay in the United States illegally.

According to an affidavit filed in federal court by an investigator from the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, Club Paris, where the women worked, was the target recently of a Honolulu Police Department prostitution investigation.

When several of the bar hostesses were preparing to return to Hong Kong on May 29, investigators and questioned them at Honolulu International Airport.

Two of the women confirmed they had been recruited to work in Hawai'i, according to the affidavit.

The women entered Hawai'i under tourist visas.

It is a federal crime to encourage people from foreign countries to enter the United States on tourist visas if they are being brought into the country to work.