Qiuju Wu sentenced to time served for stealing $2.8 million from missing LI couple, faces deportation

A Queens woman was sentenced to time served and will be deported to her native China for her role in the theft of more than $2.8 million from the bank accounts of a Long Island couple missing since 2025.

Qiuju Wu, 59, of Flushing, tearfully apologized for her conduct before she was sentenced in a Central Islip courtroom.

"I apologize to you all ... I apologize to the U.S. government," Wu told the court through a Mandarin interpreter. "In the future, I will definitely make sure I function as a good person."

Wu had admitted her role in the scam that resulted in $2.8 million being stolen from the bank accounts of JuanJuan Zwang and her husband, Peishuan Fan, who were last seen at their Old Brookville mansion on Maria Lane on March 30, 2025. Their mysterious disappearance remains unsolved.

U.S. District Judge Nusrat J. Choudhury ordered Wu to pay full restitution of the $2.8 million, with $101,000 due to be paid 30 days after sentencing.

Choudhury delivered warm comments to Wu at the proceeding’s conclusion.

"You have fully paid your debt to society ... I just want you to know that I wish you the best of luck," Choudhury said.

Prosecutors had sought a sentence of 15 to 21 months in prison, but conceded that Wu had been honest with authorities, revealing that she had personally profited to the tune of $101,000 — a fact the federal government wouldn't have known without Wu’s cooperation.

"She was honest and forthright," said Assistant United States Attorney Adam Toporovsky. "Without that, we wouldn’t know the full scale of it."

Toporovsky noted that Wu "faced extreme collateral consequences" for her actions.

"She will ultimately be deported," he said. Wu, a Chinese national, overstayed her visa.

Wu’s attorney Louis Henry Klein, of The Kasen & Liu Law Firm in Flushing, sought a sentence of time served, thanking Toporovsky for "correctly" pointing out his client’s cooperation.

"She’s prepared to accept removal from the United States," he said.

Choudhury said Wu’s sentence reflected the fact that she had already served a year in the Metropolitan Detention Center — a federal jail in Brooklyn where the judge said "terrible conditions" exist — "played a minimal role" in the conspiracy, "didn’t understand the full scope of it" and "profited far less" than her co-conspirator.

Wu, who has worked in the MDC’s laundry room during her incarceration, also has several health issues — she had a lung removed as a child — and was the victim of spousal abuse during her first marriage, Choudhury noted.

Wu had opened a Bank of America account in the name of one of the victims, and beginning in July 2025, more than $1.7 million was transferred and withdrawn from the victim’s account, but Wu had no role in the theft from the other victim’s account, the judge said.

Wu pleaded guilty in March to conspiracy to commit bank fraud. She was arrested in Texas last September. Her co-defendant, Yinye Wang, also known as Roy Wang, 36, of Roslyn and College Point, Queens, was arrested in California and released on bond, but never appeared for a scheduled court date in New York. He remains a fugitive.

Newsday has reported that federal officials don’t believe the theft of the missing couple’s money has any connection to their disappearance.

In 2022, Fan, 48, a business owner, and Zwang, 44, a stay-at-home mother, moved to the United States, living initially in a luxury apartment tower in Jersey City. The following year, they purchased an Old Brookville mansion on Maria Lane for $3.8 million, paying in cash, Newsday has reported.

John Carman, a Garden City attorney who represented the older of the two children of the missing couple who have since moved back to China, on Friday said there have been no updates in the disappearance.

"We are grateful for the efforts of the government to bring her to justice," said Carman, referring to Wu. "However, a substantial amount of money was lost and we continue to hold out hope that the more culpable participants are brought to justice."