ICE Supervisor Arrested for Identity Theft, Compromising Government Records
An ICE supervisor from New York has been charged with identity theft and conspiracy after allegedly providing information from confidential Homeland Security databases to friends and acquaintances.
Yau, a 41-year-old man from New York City, is charged with one count of identity theft conspiracy, four counts of conspiracy to convert government records and property and disclose agency records containing individually identifiable information, one count of conversion of government records and property and one count of disclosure of agency records containing individually identifiable information. If convicted on all charges, he faces 19 years in prison.
Allegedly Provided Confidential Information to ‘Friends’
Yau served as a Supervisory Deportation officer with the U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The stated mission of DHS is to “protect America through criminal investigations and enforcing immigration laws to preserve national security and public safety.”
ICE employed Yau from 2015 to November 2024, according to the Justice Department. In September 2021, he was promoted to Supervisory Deportation Officer and was assigned to the ICE New York Field Office in Manhattan, NYC.
As an ICE Deportation Officer, Yau had access to several password-protected law enforcement databases operated by DHS and other law enforcement agencies, including U.S. ICE databases containing the status of immigration-related applications.
From 2017 to 2023, Yau participated in schemes to share confidential government information gathered from different databases with his friends and acquaintances for his own personal and financial gain, according to the federal complaint against him.
Between 2019 and 2020, he disclosed confidential information from databases about an individual to Tommy Lin, a former official in the NYC Mayor’s Office, prosecutors say. Lin allegedly wanted to deport that individual from the U. S. because of a conflict. In addition to providing information, Yau reportedly arrested that individual at Lin’s request.
U.S. Attorney Comments
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams told the press that Yau abused his position at ICE to arrest people as favors to friends and even tipped off someone who the FBI was investigating.
“As I have said before, public service is a privilege, not a right, and the career prosecutors of this Office and our law enforcement partners will never stop investigating those who seek to abuse that privilege,” Williams said in a press release.
Similar Cases
This year, The Daily Muck has covered other high-profile cases involving federal border and immigration agents.
A former Customs and Border Protection officer was convicted in June 2024 for accepting bribes to let vehicles carrying meth and fentanyl cross into the U.S. at its border with Mexico.
Then, in September 2024, an ICE employee was sentenced to nine years in federal prison for sexually enticing a minor online.
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