By Leonardo BlairSenior reporter Friday, November 22, 2024

Officials at Olivet Universitya Christian Bible college based in Anza, California, says a sophisticate T visa scheme fueled a civil lawsuit filed by four former international students who accuse the school and its officials of labor trafficking. A “T visa scheme” involves the fraudulent use of a human trafficking application to convert a temporary visa into permanent residency.

In the lawsuit, previously reported by The Los Angeles Times, the former students — Dawin Liranzo Galan, Roland Broccko, Minerva Ruiz and Rebecca Singh — allege they were locked up, surveilled and forced to work sometimes more than 40 hours a week for free when they would should have studied at Bible college on full scholarships.

Olivet denied all claims.

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Singh, who is an Indian citizen, first reported to local police in 2018 that she was forced to work without pay at the rural college for months, doing all kinds of work, including “housekeeping, babysitting, laundry and kitchen help . “

Galan, who previously lived in Spain, as well as Broccko and Ruiz, who came to the U.S. from Venezuela, had similar narratives of forced labor.

“Galan was forced to work at Olivet for about 40 hours a week. He was required to perform manual labor, including receiving and unloading large containers filled with furniture for Olivet,” the lawsuit alleges. “Galan also unloaded the furniture items and then assembled them. Galan never received any money as payment for his work at Olivet.

Non-immigrant T visa, acc US Citizenship and Immigration Servicesis a temporary visa that allows “certain victims of a severe form of human trafficking to remain in the United States for an initial period of up to 4 years if they have complied with any reasonable request by law enforcement for assistance in locating, investigating, or prosecution of human trafficking or qualifies for an exemption or exception.”

Human trafficking or human trafficking, the agency said, “is a crime in which traffickers use force, fraud, or coercion to compel individuals to provide labor or services, including commercial sex.” Nonimmigrant T status was created by Congress in October 2000 as part of the Trafficking and Violence Victims Protection Act to help protect victims of crime. Nonimmigrants who obtain this status can become lawful permanent residents if they qualify.

Among the defendants in the lawsuit are: Matthias Gebhardt, who was dean of Olivet Theological College and Seminary and head of the Financial Aid Committee when the plaintiffs were at Olivet; David Jang, founder of both Olivet University and the World Olive Assembly; and other school officials including Jasmine Park, Andrew Lin, Rachel Cheung, Nathanael Tran and Stephanie Choi Gebhardt.

Attorney C. Yong Jeong of Jeong and Likens, LC sent a comprehensive response to the LA Times report in an Oct. 10 letter, which CP reviewed. Jeong explained that the lawsuit, which was originally filed in September 2023 and later amended, has already been dismissed at least once. He requested corrections or withdrawal of the report. Olivet University President Jonathan Park told CP that the school has yet to hear back from the LA Times.

“These allegations continue to be completely false,” Jeong wrote in the letter to the LA Times. “The lawsuit has already been dismissed once (called a ‘demurrer’ in California) and the lead plaintiff’s wife (Nogleides) withdrew her amended complaint because her attorney advised that their actions were ‘rewarding kindness with malice'” (original in the language Spanish is “quien mucho ayuda, mal le paga”).

“In fact, the individuals who originally filed these complaints have offered numerous invitations to settle in civil court, all of which the university has rejected because the allegations are completely false.”

The plaintiffs asked the school for $300,000 each to drop their claims, but the school rejected the offer, a school official said. said the International Business Times. Their lawyer reportedly reduced the settlement amount to $200,000, but the school still refused, arguing that they had done nothing wrong.

OU President Park said the students’ decision to sue the school for human trafficking appears to fit the T visa scheme because they were only at the school for short periods before transferring to other schools to is studying ESL.

“They got a three-year ESL visa, and after the three years were up, they alleged human trafficking from three years ago,” Park explained. “They are in the process, or they may have already received it, but what has already been discovered is that they were in the process of receiving this victim of human trafficking visa.”

Colleen Shalby, the LA Times reporter whose name appears on the story, did not respond to CP’s request for comment. Plaintiffs’ attorney, Darren Harris de Harris Grombchevsky LLPwhen asked if he would be willing to answer questions about the lawsuit, CP said he had written to Olivet’s attorney and was waiting to hear back. He has not indicated a willingness to answer CP’s questions beyond that. He asked if CP had any connection to the university and was told that the CEO of CP is an Olivet graduate.

Located on a historic Indian sanctuary, Olivet University in Anza spans more than 900 acres, according to school website. The school offers a variety of full degree and certificate programs at its Anza headquarters, plus campuses in San Francisco, California; Washington, DC; St. Louis, Missouri; Nashville, Tennessee; and Orlando, Florida. In 2022, the campus the school ran in New York lost its permit to operate after the state’s education department decided not to renew the school’s expiring permit, citing noncompliance with laws and regulations.

In addition to the four students mentioned above, former Chinese students Tingbo Cao, 41, and Qilian Zhou, 35, have also made similar claims that they were forced to work without pay for their studies , according to the LA Times.

They also claimed they loaned Olivet University hundreds of thousands of dollars in 2019 and were repaid just this year. They told the Times the university still owes them thousands of dollars in interest on loans, which the school denies.

In a letter to the San Francisco field office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, reviewed by CP, OU attorneys called for an investigation and punishment of Cao, Zhou and another woman identified as Sophia Yu “for the report malicious and false regarding human trafficking… . to obtain a T visa.”

Lawyers alleged that Yu, also known as Shopie Yu and Jihee Yu, was “the mastermind behind the scheme” to fraudulently obtain T visas.

“Tingbo Cao and Qilian Zhou, a married couple and former students at Olivet University’s San Francisco campus, made a false report to the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) claiming they were victims of human trafficking and exploitation through work. The couple’s intention was to obtain a T visa as their visas were expiring. The mastermind behind their actions is Sophia Yu, who is suspected of being affiliated with a pro-North Korea cell group,” the lawyers wrote.

“The school never borrowed money from Tingbo. The San Francisco campus where Tingbo lived is open, with no fences or gates, allowing free access to anyone and no one interfering with their daily lives. They regularly left campus for Sunday worship services at their church of choice (not Olivet’s Chapel) in suburban San Francisco, which supports the claim that no one confined or controlled them,” the attorneys added. “The school never forced them to work.”

Allegations against Newsweek

Olivet University was also accused of violating a number of educational regulations by the California Bureau of Private Postsecondary Education (BPPE). In a response to the allegations reviewed by CP, Katherine A. Lee Carey, another attorney for the university, accused Newsweek of “inciting and influencing, directly or indirectly, the BPPE to a type of adverse action by making false claims and sending the Office to inaccurate and misleading articles that Newsweek wrote about Olivet.”

Carey claimed that Newsweek was actively trying to get Olivet University to lose its license to operate in the state of California, similar to how the publication’s actors influenced New York education officials not to renew the school’s license to operate.

She pointed out that both Newsweek co-owners Dev Pragad and Johnathan Davis were at one time active members of the World Olivet Assembly, the global denomination affiliated with Olivet University, and both had ties to the school. Pragad and Davis are reportedly no longer members of the denomination.

Newsweek is involved in a lawsuit, NW Media Holdings Corp. v. IBT Media Inc.., where defendants include Olivet University and Olivet University founder David Jang, along with IBT — which previously owned Newsweek — and IBT CEO Etienne Uzac. The lawsuit’s earlier claims against defendants World Olivet Assembly and IBT Vice President of Technology Younseok (Titus) Choi were dismissed.

The complaint alleges that the defendants conspired to delete 1.8 terabytes of data from Newsweek’s Google Workspace to cover up the connections between the World Olivet Assembly and IBT related to a series of defendants’ wrongdoings after IBT sold Newsweek to NW Media Holdings Corp., in 2018. .

Lawyers for Olivet University insist that Newsweek fueled an ongoing campaign to damage the school’s reputation with negative reporting. Some of these reports contained false statements at least twice – in February 2018 and March 2023. The university also reported that they filed a defamation lawsuit against Newsweek on June 30, 2023.

Newsweek did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CP on Thursday. One Statement July 2022after Olivet University’s permit to operate in New York was not renewed, the school cited the dispute as a factor.

“As already mentioned in OU’s April statement, it must be emphasized that the media driving the false narrative is Newsweek, and the driving reason is an internal shareholder conflict. Newsweek CEO Dev Pragad threatened Johnathan Davis to attack Olivet University if Mr. Davis did not surrender control and ownership of Newsweek to him.”