Chino Hills Woman Sizhen Liu, Sentenced to 50 Months in $1.2M Retail Fraud Case, Now in ICE Custody Pending Removal, Agency Post Says
According to a post by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Seattle office on X, as relayed by Chinese-language media on October 22, Sizhen "Rachel" Liu of Chino Hills — sentenced to 50 months in federal prison for her role in a large-scale identity-theft and retail-fraud scheme — has been taken into ICE custody and is being held pending removal. ICE has not announced details of any removal arrangements.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California, Liu was one of six defendants who stole the personal identifying information of hundreds of victims, including Social Security numbers, dates of birth and home addresses, and used it to make fake driver's licenses for co-schemers. Members of the group then used victims' identities to open and use lines of credit at retailers including Ulta Beauty, Sephora, Nordstrom, Macy's, Kohl's, Williams-Sonoma, Dillard's and Saks Fifth Avenue, causing losses of at least $1.2 million.
Liu, then 35 and living in Chino Hills, was sentenced on January 6, 2025, to 50 months in federal prison on counts of conspiracy to commit access-device fraud and access-device fraud involving devices worth more than $1,000. Four co-defendants were later sentenced: Kar Kee "Steven" Cheung of Chino Hills, 42 months; Qian Guo of Chino Hills, 33 months; Chongming "Ming" Wang of Temple City, 18 months; and Jiaozhu "Yanny" Yan of Alhambra, 12 months and one day. A sixth defendant, Hyun Woo "Scott" Jung of Ontario, pleaded guilty in February 2025.
The case was investigated by the U.S. Department of State's Diplomatic Security Service, with assistance from Homeland Security Investigations, the FBI and multiple local police departments.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：洛杉矶市中心Spring Street 312号的美国法院大楼正门（美国加州中区联邦检察官办公室所在地，该案由该办公室起诉）。摄影：MikeJiroch，CC BY-SA 3.0，经Wikimedia Commons。Photo: Entrance of the United States Court House at 312 N. Spring Street in downtown Los Angeles, home of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California, which prosecuted the case. Photo by MikeJiroch, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
