A Queens deacon has been convicted of helping Chinese immigrants seek asylum over bogus religious beliefs by coaching them in how to lie to the feds.
Liying Lin, a 30-year-old deacon at the Full Gospel Global Mission Church in Flushing, was found guilty by a Manhattan federal jury on Tuesday on three of the four counts of immigration-fraud charges she had faced.
The feds say she offered paid lessons on Christianity to immigrants and then coached them on how to falsely seek asylum by claiming they were persecuted by China for their religious beliefs.
She is one of 26 defendants indicted by the feds in 2012 for allegedly participating in separate but overlapping immigration-fraud schemes related to the submission of hundreds of asylum applications containing fabricated claims of persecution. Most of the defendants are law firm staffers, including six Big Apple lawyers and many paralegals.
Lin served as a translator during asylum interviews and supplied the immigrants with false documents to support their asylum claims, the feds say.
“Liying Lin fraudulently exploited a program designed to provide a safe haven for actual victims of persecution,” Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bhahara said. “She coached asylum seekers on how to lie on their applications and in immigration proceedings, even signaling applicants when they deviated from her fraudulent script.”
Lin’s lawyer, Kenneth Paul, said his client plans to appeal.
“She’s obviously very disappointed,” said Paul, adding that his client’s sole goal was teaching the immigrants about Christianity.
Lin faces up to 25 years behind bars when she’s sentenced by Judge Robert Patterson Jr. on June 2.