Man, Ex-Wife Guilty in $230,000 Welfare Fraud

A former successful plumbing business owner and his ex-wife were convicted of fraudulently collecting more than $230,000 in welfare payments over a 15-year period.

The case was against Paul Lai of Rosemead and Sam Mui Luu, who immigrated to the United States from Vietnam in 1979 and applied for welfare the next year.

After their divorce in 1987, Luu said she and Lai were living apart, which was untrue, according to prosecutor Beatriz Dieringer.

Lai, who ran a plumbing business in South El Monte, accumulated more than $1 million in assets, including real estate, and the two traveled to China while the welfare payments were being collected, Dieringer said.

The prosecutor called the motive “greed, plain and simple.”