KOREATOWN : Businessman Sentenced in Green Card Bribery Case
A Koreatown businessman who pleaded guilty to giving an immigration officer nearly $60,000 for up to five bogus green cards was sentenced Tuesday to four months in prison.
U.S. District Judge Lourdes Baird also ordered Tae Ho Kim, 38, of Los Angeles to undergo six months in a community treatment center once he gets out of prison, followed by two years of supervised release, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Mark Byrne.
Byrne said an informant told FBI agents in late 1992 that Kim was interested in buying green cards for several of his business associates and friends.
Acting through a friend of Kim’s, the FBI put him in contact with an agent posing as a corrupt U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service official, Byrne said.
The authorities arranged meetings between Kim, an interpreter and the phony immigration official, and even distributed green cards to Kim’s associates, the prosecutor said.
The bribes, which totaled close to $60,000, were paid after receipt of the documents, Byrne said.
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