Owner of schools that illegally allowed foreign nationals to remain in U.S. as “students” sentenced to 15 months in federal prison

LOS ANGELES – The owner of four schools that enrolled hundreds of foreign nationals who fraudulently obtained immigration documents allowing them to remain in the United States as “students” – even though they rarely, if ever, attended classes – was sentenced today to 15 months in federal prison and ordered to forfeit more than $450,000.

Hee Sun Shim (also known as Leonard Shim and Leo Shim), 54, of Hancock Park, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge George H. Wu. Shim, who was ordered to begin serving his sentence in 60 days, and was further ordered to forfeit to the government $431,508 seized from bank accounts and $34,860 in cash seized during the execution of a federal search warrant at his former residence in Beverly Hills in March 2015.

The investigation into the Prodee schools was conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), with substantial assistance from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ Fraud Detection and National Security Division.

Shim pleaded guilty last year to one count of conspiracy to commit immigration fraud and one count of immigration document fraud in relation to what prosecutors called “a sophisticated, extensive, and lucrative fraud scheme that operated for many years in the Koreatown area of Los Angeles.”

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