Ah Kay testified against her during her May–June 2005 trial. Cheng became a snakehead, primarily as an investor, charging up to per person for the voyage from Asia to New York City in the suffocating hold of the rogue vessel. Although Cheng provided cash to buy the aging vessel in Thailand, trial evidence showed that she did not view "Golden Venture"'s voyage as an important business deal, even though the gross take for all involved would have been around $8.5 million – if all of the immigrants aboard had paid or been ransomed by their families. She owned restaurants, a clothing store, real estate in Chinatown, apartments in Hong Kong, and a farm in South Africa. Evidence revealed that her main, multimillion-dollar business was an underground banking network that stretched from New York to Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, and China. On March 17, 2006, she was sentenced to the maximum of 35 years in federal prison despite her protests that she was forced to carry out the work by Triad gangs. The federal judge pointed out the inhumane travel conditions forced on the immigrants and her use of gangsters to collect debts and ransoms in justifying the sentence. Renamed United Caribbean and used for a while as a cargo vessel in the Caribbean, the ship was later purchased by Palm Beach County for $60,000 and deliberately sunk August 22, 2000 as an artificial reef in 70 feet of water about one mile off the south coast of Florida near Boca Raton Inlet. The ship, which had been built in 1969, became part of the Palm Beach Artificial Reef Program. This wreck is a scuba diving destination and has now broken into three pieces, courtesy of the 2004 hurricanes Frances and Jeanne.