Federal prosecutors say a former New York immigration officer turned his government logins into a side hustle, trading sensitive data for cash, pricey dinners, and top-shelf liquor. On Friday, he admitted it in court.
Former Immigration and Customs Enforcement supervisory deportation officer Henry Yau, 43, pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to conspiring to solicit and accept bribes and gratuities. U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon will decide how long he goes to prison. Yau also acknowledged abusing his position to feed confidential immigration and law-enforcement information to people who were not authorized to see it, as first reported by Syracuse.com. The plea closes out an investigation that had already produced earlier federal charges and related arrests tied to the same alleged scheme.
Prosecutors say Yau sold confidential database access
According to court filings, Yau used his ICE credentials like an all-access key, logging into password-protected databases from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Customs and Border Protection, and other law-enforcement systems. Prosecutors say he pulled immigration statuses, border-crossing histories, and even tips linked to ongoing investigations, then passed that information to friends and associates who had no legal right to it.
The complaint alleges that Yau disclosed information about roughly 28 individuals and, at least once, even offered to have someone arrested at the request of his associates. In return, prosecutors say he did not work for free: he allegedly took cash, expensive restaurant meals, and premium bottles of alcohol as payment, according to U.S. Attorney’s Office records.
How the alleged scheme worked
Prosecutors say Yau’s co-conspirators treated the information he supplied as a tool kit. Some allegedly used it to speed up border entries or dodge secondary inspections, while others allegedly used it to lean on people connected to separate fraud investigations. In effect, data that was supposed to help law enforcement became a way to game the system or intimidate targets…