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Date: Sept. 30, 2026
Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov
Bangor, ME – A New York man was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Bangor for submitting a false mortgage loan application and maintaining a marijuana-involved premises.
U.S. District Judge Stacey D. Neumann sentenced Ken Yiu of Brooklyn, New York, to time-served (one day) prison to be followed by three years of supervised release. Yiu pleaded guilty on Dec. 10, 2025.
According to court records, Yiu purchased a house in Saint Albans using an $80,000 residential mortgage loan he obtained from a Maine bank. To receive the funding, Yiu submitted a loan application in which he answered “Yes” to the question, “Do you intend to occupy the property as your primary residence?” Yiu never intended to occupy the property as a residence. From September 2020 through January 2024, he instead used the property to grow and distribute marijuana.
In December 2024, federal law enforcement agents interviewed Yiu. During the interview, Yiu admitted selling marijuana he grew at his Saint Albans property to buyers in Massachusetts. Investigators executed a federal search warrant at the property in January 2025. The search confirmed that Yiu had used and maintained the property to grow and distribute marijuana.
Neither Yiu nor his property was licensed through the Maine Office of Cannabis Policy.
IRS-Criminal Investigation, the FBI, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, and Homeland Security Investigations investigated the case with assistance provided by the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office and the Maine Fire Marshal’s Office.
This prosecution is part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad. Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full might of United States law enforcement towards identifying, investigating, and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations, which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders. In performing this work, the HSTF places special emphasis on investigating and prosecuting those engaged in child trafficking or other crimes involving children. The HSTF further utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States. The Maine HSTF comprises agents and officers from FBI; HSI; DEA; IRS-Criminal Investigation; U.S. Marshals Service; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Diplomatic Security Service; U.S. Customs and Border Protection; U.S. Border Patrol; Coast Guard Investigative Service; and Transportation Security Administration, with the prosecution being led by the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Maine.
IRS-CI is the law enforcement arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. It is the only federal law enforcement agency with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code. IRS-CI has 16 field offices located across the U.S. and maintains an international presence through attaché posts abroad.