Bellevue police have arrested and charged six people for massage license fraud in a seven-month long, ongoing investigation.

In September of 2011, the Bellevue Police vice division received information from the Washington State Department of Health and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations that a number of regional massage practitioner’s licenses had been obtained fraudulently.

As a result of an investigation undertaken by state health and HSI, numerous individuals were identified as having submitted suspected counterfeit Chinese school and licensing credentials while filling out the health department’s Practitioner Licensing Applications. Investigations showed that the individuals in question were unable to receive the listed massage training in China during the times listed on the applications. The applicants were either not in China during that time period stated, or they were not there long enough to receive the required number of hours of specialized training.

Department of Health and HSI requested assistance from Bellevue Police Department in completing these investigations. HSI and U.S. Customs and Border Protection provided Mandarin translators during the arrests. All six arrested had some type of connection to Bellevue massage business locations.