Shen Yun Is Said to Be Under Federal Investigation Over Possible Visa Fraud

Federal authorities are conducting a criminal investigation into Shen Yun Performing Arts, the touring dance group run by the Falun Gong religious movement, according to nine people with knowledge of the matter.

The investigation is being overseen by the United States Department of Homeland Security and the State Department, as well as federal prosecutors in Manhattan. It has focused at least in part on possible visa fraud, some of the people said.

The full scope of the inquiry is unclear, and it may not result in any charges. But it is taking place during a period of intense scrutiny for Shen Yun.

Last year, a New York Times investigation revealed that the dance group has exploited its young performers, typically the children of Falun Gong followers, by paying them little or nothing to work long hours and keep grueling schedules.

New York regulators have separately begun an inquiry into whether the group has complied with state labor law, and a former performer has filed a lawsuit accusing Shen Yun of forced labor and human trafficking.

The agents conducting the federal criminal investigation have also sought information about Shen Yun’s financial and labor practices, including whether performers were directed to smuggle cash into the United States when returning from tours overseas, according to people with knowledge of the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing inquiry.

Ying Chen, a representative of Shen Yun, said the group had yet to hear from federal authorities but would “cooperate fully” if contacted.

“We operate with integrity and remain committed to upholding the highest artistic and ethical standards,” she wrote, adding that the group was dedicated to complying with “all applicable laws.”

Spokespeople for the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department and the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan all declined to comment.

Known for its ubiquitous advertising, Shen Yun stages hundreds of performances a year around the world. Its music and dance pieces deliver the anti-Communist message of Falun Gong, which has been banned by the Chinese government, and the spiritual teachings of Li Hongzhi, the religious movement’s founder and leader.

Many of Shen Yun’s performers have joined the group in New York while on student visas from Taiwan, Canada, Australia and elsewhere. Their training is overseen by Mr. Li himself, who is in his early 70s and is viewed by many Falun Gong followers as the creator of the universe.

Falun Gong’s headquarters in Cuddebackville, N.Y., includes a boarding school and college where Shen Yun’s performers can live and study.

The criminal inquiry, which has been in progress since at least 2023, has focused in part on whether Shen Yun’s leaders arranged romantic relationships for its performers, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The Times reported in August that Shen Yun’s leaders have tried to set up foreign students with American citizens in relationships that some former performers believed were for visa purposes.

Male and female performers in Shen Yun were not supposed to speak to one another unless it was necessary for work, and dating required permission from Shen Yun’s leaders, according to interviews with former performers. Violators of these rules could face public shaming during group critique sessions — or expulsion from the group, former performers said.

In her statement, Ms. Chen wrote, “Falun Gong practitioners take the institution of marriage seriously, and any allegation otherwise is false. All marriages within our community are genuine.”

Aside from asking about visas, federal investigators have also interviewed former Shen Yun performers and others about their working and living conditions, including their hours and compensation, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The investigators were examining whether performers could come and go freely from the group’s guarded compound northwest of New York City and whether their passports were confiscated when they joined Shen Yun. They were also investigating the nature and quality of the education provided by Shen Yun’s training schools, some of the people said.

Ms. Chen said that Shen Yun’s student performers receive full scholarships and are provided with a “modern education in all of the academic subjects that will prepare them for college but also in traditional Chinese beliefs and values.”

She said the group holds on to students’ passports for safekeeping, “but we always return the passports when requested.”

Representatives of Shen Yun and Falun Gong have said that state and federal labor laws do not apply to their student performers because they are receiving a learning opportunity, not working as employees. They have often sought to cast their critics, including former members of Shen Yun, as pawns of the Chinese government, which has persecuted Falun Gong followers for almost three decades.

In her most recent statement, Ms. Chen said again that the Chinese Communist Party was driving a campaign to sabotage Shen Yun.

“In addition to such legal attacks,” she said, “Shen Yun receives multiple threats every month of bombings, mass shootings and threats to rape and kill our female performers.”

The investigation, which initially involved the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service, expanded in recent months to include agents from Homeland Security Investigations, which conducts criminal inquiries into the illegal movement of people, goods and money into and out of the United States.

Few businesses run by Falun Gong are more important to the movement than Shen Yun. A huge moneymaker, the dance group reported $266 million in assets at the end of 2023, its most recent tax filing showed, with nearly all of that kept in cash and other liquid instruments.

Its current world tour began in December and is scheduled to travel to five continents, ending in May.

In interviews with The Times, former performers said they had been discouraged from seeking medical treatment for injuries and had endured years of emotional abuse and manipulation by Shen Yun leaders who wanted them to stay in the group and keep performing.

The Times has also reported that Shen Yun asked young performers to sneak cash into the United States — and that the group relied on free labor and financial support from Falun Gong followers, some of whom skirted federal rules to obtain $48 million in pandemic relief grants.

The federal prosecutors’ office involved in the investigation, in the Southern District of New York, brought a case last June against the chief financial officer of The Epoch Times, a news outlet run by Falun Gong practitioners.

He was indicted on charges of conspiring to launder $67 million and of lying to a bank about its source — a scheme that inflated the newspaper’s accounts, prosecutors said. Another Epoch Times employee has also been charged in the scheme.

They have pleaded not guilty.

The Times has reported that in 2020 and 2021, the period when prosecutors say the money laundering scheme was underway, The Epoch Times donated $16 million to Shen Yun and a school that trains its performers.

Susan C. Beachy contributed research.