On Thursday, March 24, Gee-Kung Chang, a Chinese professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia, was arraigned on charges of conspiracy to commit visa fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and wire fraud, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Jikun Chang was indicted on March 18, 2021, along with Jianjun Yu, a former technical director at ZTE USA.
“The defendants allegedly abused their visas to defraud Georgia Tech and bring researchers into the United States,” said Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia Kurt R. Erskine, “and the filing of charges (against them) is the first step in holding them accountable. “
“The United States welcomes scholars and researchers from around the globe,” said Atlanta Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Officer Chris Hacker, “but we cannot allow anyone to take advantage of our benevolence (to exploit loopholes). These defendants were charged for just such (fraud), and now they face trial.”
According to Erskine, Zhang Jikun, 73, and Yu Jianjun, 53, then technical director of ZTE USA in Morristown, N.J., allegedly conspired to bring Chinese nationals to the United States to work at their companies. ZTE USA is a subsidiary of ZTE Corporation, a partially state-owned telecommunications and information technology company in China.
Jikun Zhang allegedly abused his position as a professor at Georgia Tech, which is a designated sponsor of the U.S. Department of State’s J-1 visa program, in order to get Chinese nationals into the United States by arranging for Chinese nationals to fraudulently obtain and hold J-1 visas.
The J-1 visa program is intended for visitors who are engaged in specific jobs and study exchanges, not for the employment of foreign workers in general.
In the J-1 visa documents submitted to the State Department, the Chinese J-1 visa holders indicated that they would be working with Jikun Zhang at the Georgia Institute of Technology. But in fact, after arriving in the United States, they traveled to New Jersey, where they lived and worked with Yu at ZTE America. Not only that, but they received their salaries at Georgia Tech while working for ZTE America.
“Actions like these not only steal valuable opportunities from legitimate, hard-working students, but they also bring crooks to the United States to profit from wrongdoing,” said Katrina Berger, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Operations, ” Identifying, arresting and prosecuting violators is critical to protecting our nation’s visas from abuse.”
The case is being investigated by the FBI and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations.
According to a statement from Georgia Tech obtained by Patch News, Jikun Zhang will remain on leave until the outcome of the judicial process is known.
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