FBI: ICE officer charged for allegedly sharing sensitive department data

The FBI has arrested and charged a supervisor with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for allegedly sharing unauthorized deportation data and other sensitive law enforcement information with more than a dozen people, including a City Hall insider and a candidate for public office, federal prosecutors announced Thursday in Manhattan.

Henry Yau, 41, of Manhattan, a supervisory law enforcement officer with ICE, was charged with identity theft conspiracy and other felonies related to the handling of government records, according to a criminal complaint unsealed in the Southern District of New York. Yau faces up to 15 years in federal prison if convicted of identity theft conspiracy and up to a year behind bars on each of the six additional charges in the complaint, prosecutors said.

“[Yau] engaged in a years-long scheme to disseminate non-public and sensitive information from law enforcement databases to friends and acquaintances," Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District Damian Williams said in a statement.

Williams accused Yau of allegedly tipping off an individual being investigated by the FBI, and offering to arrest people as a favor to friends, among other alleged offenses, according to a news release.

Prosecutors said the criminal conduct dated back to at least 2017, before Yau was promoted to a supervisory rank, and continued through 2023. He began his career with ICE in 2015 and resigned earlier this month, prosecutors said.

The FBI used conversations from text messages and encrypted platforms to build their case against Yau, court records show.

Among those said to have benefited from the alleged scheme were Tommy Lin, a former constituent services director for Mayor Bill de Blasio who was previously indicted in a separate scheme; a former candidate for New York City Council and New York State Assembly who was not identified in court records; and a former target of a fraud investigation being conducted by the FBI in California, who was also not named in court records. At least 28 individuals were provided with sensitive information, according to prosecutors.

A special agent with the FBI alleged in the complaint that Yau supplied Lin, who was indicted in a bank fraud conspiracy in June, with confidential information about a man Lin was seeking to have arrested and deported. Yau then arrested the man and sent Lin photos showing him in custody, according to the complaint.

When confronted by investigators in June, Yau said he had used information from Lin to conduct an arrest and "probably" gave ICE information to him. He said he received a watch, liquor and free dinners from Lin, though he believed those to be gifts based on their friendship, according to the complaint.

"This alleged abuse of authority to satisfy unwarranted personal favors erodes the public's trust," FBI Assistant Director in Charge James E. Dennehy said in a statement.

Yau also allegedly told one co-conspirator that he could let him know in advance if any noncitizens would be arrested when reporting for appointments with ICE and also checked for Customs holds before another co-conspirator returned to the United States from Hong Kong, court records show.

In another instance, Yau allegedly offered to arrest a man involved in a workplace dispute with another co-conspirator and also contacted a representative of the General Services Administration for information regarding government contract bids on ammunition to support a business venture he was involved in with that co-conspirator, according to the complaint.

Arraignment and attorney information for Yau was not immediately available Thursday.

By Grant Parpan

grant.parpan@newsday.com@GrantParpan

Grant Parpan covers Suffolk County courts and federal courts for Newsday. A Long Island native, he joined Newsday in 2022.