New York man pleads guilty to mortgage fraud and maintaining an illegal marijuana grow house

Date: Dec. 10, 2025

Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov

Bangor, ME – A New York man pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Bangor to submitting a false mortgage loan application and maintaining a marijuana-involved premises.

According to court records, Ken Yiu of New York City 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 in Saint Albans 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 property in Saint Albans to buyers in Massachusetts. A federal search warrant for the property was executed in January 2025. The search confirmed that the property had been used and maintained by Yiu to grow and distribute marijuana.

Yiu faces up to 30 years in prison and a maximum fine of $1 million for the mortgage fraud count and 20 years in prison and a maximum fine of $500,000 for the drug count. He will be sentenced after the completion of a presentence investigative report 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.

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.

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.