NEW YORK—A U.S. law enforcement officer who oversees deportations was arrested on Nov. 21 over alleged identity theft and the leaking of confidential government records.
Henry Yau, a 41-year-old man from New York, allegedly disclosed sensitive and non-public information concerning at least 28 individuals, according to a federal indictment filed on Nov. 19.
Yau allegedly pulled the records from agencies such as the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection, and the Citizenship and Immigration Services, and passed the details on to at least 12 non-law enforcement personnel, including a former director for the New York mayor’s office, the court filing said.
Prosecutors accused Yau of tipping off a man under FBI investigation and arresting people as a favor to his friends.
Yau was arrested on the morning of Nov. 21 and appeared before Magistrate Judge Stewart D. Aaron at the New York Southern District Court in lower Manhattan.
Yau, an ICE deportation officer since 2015, rose to a supervisory role at the agency in September 2021, which he held until his resignation in November. He faces one count of identity theft conspiracy charge, four counts of conspiracy to convert government records and property and disclose agency records containing individually identifiable information, one count of conversion of government records and property, and one count of disclosure of agency records containing individually identifiable information. Altogether, the seven charges could bring up to 21 years in prison.
Among Yau’s alleged benefactors is Tommy Lin, who served as the director of constituent services for former Mayor Bill de Blasio. Authorities arrested Lin in June in connection with a scheme to defraud at least $10 million from over a dozen banks. The fraudsters involved allegedly used Chinese nationals to open bank accounts and then file false reports or fraudulent transactions to have credit transferred to the accounts, according to court documents.
When the conspirators realized that one accountholder involved could report them to the police, they began contriving ways to stop the person, according to the complaint.
“Is there any way to keep his mouth shut and deport him directly?” one conspirator, identified as CC-5, asked Lin.
They worked out a plan to get the man arrested in October 2020, allegedly with help from Lin and Yau, according to the complaint. Weeks before the arrest, the court document alleged, Yau had prepared a “field operations worksheet” labeled sensitive and containing the target’s criminal history, his home address, and a photo that appeared to be from his driver’s license. He allegedly shared a copy of it with Lin, who eventually pocketed $20,000 for facilitating the man’s arrest.
The operation apparently wasn’t the first request from Lin that Yau had responded to, according to the document.
In August 2019, Lin allegedly asked Yau if they could detain someone in Delaware and shared a photo of the person’s driver’s license, according to a translated text message exchange from the complaint.
“If he’s in another state, I have to refer it to ICE in that state he resides,” Yau allegedly replied, saying he would check the man’s records in the system when he got back to the office, according to the document.
Between 2019 and 2021, Yau allegedly transmitted nonpublic information regarding two individual’s immigration status to a former candidate for New York City Council and New York State Assembly, the complaint also said. And he allegedly helped the former target of an FBI fraud probe in California check whether they would face arrest at the border. The person in June 2020 pleaded guilty to wire fraud relating to a scheme to get unqualified international students into U.S. schools, according to the filing.
Yau had allegedly asked for a favor from the former New York City Council candidate, including seeking advice to evade tax on investment profit, and discussed getting into business together, according to the complaint.
In a June interview with the FBI agents, Yau admitted that he “likely” and “probably” gave information from an ICE field operations worksheet to Lin. He acknowledged further that he “likely” and “probably” accepted Lin’s gifts, according to the court filing. These gifts include a G-Shock watch, liquor, and dinners but Yau said they were a demonstration of friendship rather than bribes or gratuities, the prosecutors said.
Many conversations recorded in the complaint took place on WeChat, a Chinese messaging app. Asked about his WeChat use in the interview, Yau stated: “I stay away from that,” claiming he last used WeChat “years ago,” according to the prosecutors. The complaint alleged that Yau denied having communicated with Lin on WeChat despite evidence to the contrary.
“Public service is a privilege, not a right, and the career prosecutors of this office and our law enforcement partners will never stop investigating those who seek to abuse that privilege,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement announcing Yau’s arrest.
