Queens Man Sentenced For Bribery Of A Public Official

ALBANY, NEW YORK – YANG CHIA TIEN, a/k/a ANDREW TIEN, 62, of Queens, NY, was sentenced on March 25, 2014 to 69 months in federal prison on three counts of bribery of a public official by Chief United States District Judge Gary L. Sharpe, announced United States Attorney Richard S. Hartunian, Homeland Security Investigations Assistant Special Agent in Charge Nicholas DiNicola, and New York State Police Special Investigations Unit Major Thomas G. Marmion.

On November 14, 2013, a federal jury in Albany convicted TIEN of making three payments totaling $51,000 to a person he believed to be an immigration official to try to obtain green cards for illegal aliens from Malaysia and China. In reality, the recipient of the payments was an undercover law enforcement officer with Homeland Security Investigations.

The prosecution resulted from a joint undercover investigation by ICE-Homeland Security Investigations and the New York State Police. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Sean O’Dowd.