A 60-year-old former Atherton resident who had a San Jose law practice has been extradited from the Kyrgyz Republic in central Asia to face fraud charges in federal court in San Jose related to a controversial visa program aimed at attracting foreign job creators.

Danhong “Jean” Chen, also known as Maria Sofia Taylor, was indicted by a grand jury in 2019 along with her ex-husband, Jianyun “Tony” Ye. The pair were accused of fraud in connection with the federal EB-5 visa program that lets foreign citizens live permanently in the U.S. with a green card if they invest a certain sum — $500,000 to $1 million at the time of the indictment, and currently $800,000 to $1,050,000 — in businesses that create jobs for U.S. workers.

Ye in 2021 pleaded guilty to fraud and obstruction of justice, was sentenced to a year in prison and has been released, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Chen fled the U.S. immediately after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil complaint in 2018 against her, Ye and two others alleging they improperly solicited investments and broke several laws, the Justice Department said in a news release Friday. Around the same time, the department said, Chen became a naturalized citizen of the tiny Caribbean island nation Dominica, which offered citizenship for payments of $100,000 into a fund, or a $200,000 real estate investment.

Last month, President Donald Trump announced a plan for a $5 million gold card program that would give a green card to foreign citizens. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the card would replace the EB-5 program, which he described as “full of nonsense, make believe and fraud.”

Trump claimed a million gold cards could be sold, raising $5 trillion. Invest In the USA, a trade group focused on the EB-5, reported that 14,169 EB-5 visas were issued last year. Chinese citizens are the dominant recipients of the visa, receiving 69% of them last year, with Vietnamese citizens obtaining 12% and Indians 6%, the group reported.

Chen was arrested in the Kyrgyz Republic at the U.S. government’s request, the department said.

She was the sole partner at the Law Offices of Jean D. Chen in north San Jose, a firm touting expertise in immigration law, the department said.

“Chen prepared and submitted to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services fraudulent documents that contained false signatures and falsely described how applicants would qualify for the EB-5 program,” the Justice Department alleged.

Chen’s law office, the department claimed, represented clients who put some $52 million into projects under the EB-5 program.

Chen is charged with 10 counts of visa fraud, two counts of obstruction of justice, and one count of aggravated identity theft. She faces years in prison and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.

She was to appear Friday afternoon in San Jose U.S. District Court.

The EB-5 program has proven to be fertile ground for Bay Area fraud artists. In January 2023, Thomas Henderson, 72, of Oakland was sentenced to 16 months in prison after his company raised more than $100 million from foreign investors under the program from 2011 to 2017, and used money from 42 investors to fund projects and businesses outside their planned investments. Henderson’s co-conspirator Cooper Lee pleaded guilty and received three years’ probation.

In 2020, lawyer Jennifer Yang of Palo Alto was sentenced to nearly four years in prison after she was found guilty over a scheme to defraud foreign investors in the EB-5 program. From 2007 to 2016, Yang, 52, and co-conspirator Daniel Wu of Las Vegas filed fraudulent EB-5 applications for seven foreign citizens who gave them about $6 million to invest.

But the pair spent investors’ money on cars, luxury hotel accommodations and a cash purchase of a $2.5 million home for Yang and her family, while jobs they claimed to have created did not exist.

In 2019, San Mateo County businesswoman Bethany Liou, 55, and her company Golden California Regional Center settled with the SEC after the agency accused her of diverting into her own accounts at least $45 million from foreign citizens intending to invest in a Cupertino real estate development under the EB-5 program. The company, solely owned by Liou, said it did not admit to or deny the SEC’s allegations, but noted that the agency did not accuse it of any “intentional fraud,” and did not levy a fine.