New York men plead guilty to mortgage fraud conspiracy to buy illegal marijuana grow houses

Date: Jan. 21, 2026

Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov

Bangor, ME – Two New York men pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Bangor to conspiring to defraud Maine banks of mortgage funding to buy houses used to illegally cultivate marijuana.

According to court records, Tony Liang of Brooklyn, New York, orchestrated the conspiracy to fraudulently obtain over half a million dollars in residential mortgage loans from two Maine banks. Liang and co-conspirators used the funds to purchase properties in Bucksport, Eddington, and Canaan. Throughout the loan application process, Liang emailed and DocuSigned materially false information to the banks, including by creating and submitting fake documentation. Liang and his co-conspirators misrepresented to the banks that the three properties would be used as residences. Instead, each property was used to illegally cultivate and manufacture marijuana.

Liang also pleaded guilty to maintaining a marijuana-involved premises at the Bucksport property. Liang maintained that property from January 2021 through February 2022 for the purpose of manufacturing marijuana, until a severe house fire disrupted the operation. The State Fire Marshal’s Office investigated the fire, discovering the remains of the illegal marijuana grow. The surviving portion of the property was filled with grow materials, chemicals, and high-powered lighting. Charred marijuana plants, processed marijuana, and hydroponics equipment also were found.

Yongliang Deng of Queens, New York, provided his personal information and government-issued identification documentation to Liang, who used Deng’s information from November through December 2020 to apply for and obtain a residential mortgage loan from a Maine bank to buy the Eddington property. Deng used his own bank accounts to make the down payment and pay the closing costs required for the purchase, with money received through Liang. Deng granted a mortgage to the Maine bank for the Eddington property. He obtained the mortgage by misrepresenting that he would occupy and use the property as his primary residence. Liang agreed to pay Deng money each month in exchange for Deng nominally holding the property as its owner. In May 2024, federal law enforcement agents interviewed Deng. During the interview, Deng admitted that the property in Eddington was an investment which had been rented out, and that he had never resided there.

Neither defendant nor any property associated with the conspiracy was licensed through the Maine Office of Cannabis Policy.

Liang and Deng each face up to 30 years in prison and a maximum fine of $1 million for the mortgage fraud conspiracy. Liang also faces 20 years in prison and a maximum fine of $500,000 for maintaining the marijuana-involved premises. Each defendant will be sentenced after the completion of presentence investigative reports by the U.S. Probation Office. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

IRS-Criminal Investigations, the FBI, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) 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 Investigations; 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 Criminal Investigation (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. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a 90% federal conviction rate. The agency has 19 field offices located across the U.S. and 14 attaché posts abroad.