Police have issued a warrant for the arrest of a Washington man accused of running a nationwide scam by pocketing money and disappearing after people pay him to sponsor Vietnamese immigrants.
Hai Van Nguyen, 41, of Washington state, faces a charge of theft by deception. He has not been arrested.
Springfield Township police investigated the case after a Lakemore Plaza business owner said he paid Nguyen $65,000 over a year and a half to sponsor several immigrants from Vietnam on work visas. The businessman said Nguyen traveled to Akron in 2014 and the two signed a contract, which was notarized at a bank in Lakemore Plaza.
The businessman told police he intended to hire the immigrants who would have come to America. He hired Nguyen after seeing an advertisement on Facebook.
After he signed the contract, the businessman said he attempted to contact Nguyen about the immigration progress, but discovered Nguyen’s phone number was disconnected. Police said Nguyen used the business name New Saigon Entertainment, which runs several casinos in Washington state and hasn’t employed Nguyen since 2010.
During their investigation, police reported they discovered Nguyen had tricked several other people with the immigration scam — including a man who paid him $400,000 and a woman who was hospitalized for stress after she discovered Nguyen had scammed her out of $100,000.
The FBI has joined the investigation, according to police reports.