Four people were arraigned on Saturday in New Jersey for allegedly posing as immigration attorneys and officials to scam immigrants, the justice department said.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, New York, who announced the arrests on Friday, said the group pretended to run a law firm, and staged fake court proceedings, in an elaborate scheme to defraud people seeking legal help for their immigration cases.
According to prosecutors, who charged five people in total, the accused made more than $100,000, with “tens of thousands” of it laundered to other co-conspirators in Colombia.
The scheme led to confusion and devastating consequences for their “dozens” of victims, the Department of Justice said. One person missed actual court hearings because of the deception and was ordered deported by US government officials “in absentia”.
The four people arrested were Daniela Alejandra Sanchez Ramirez, Marlyn Yulitza Salazar Pineda, Jhoan Sebastian Sanchez Ramirez and Alexandra Patricia Sanchez Ramirez. The fifth person charged is at large in Colombia, prosecutors said.
“The defendants engaged in this criminal conduct entirely because of greed, lining their own pockets and those of their coconspirators in Colombia to whom they laundered tens of thousands of dollars of victims’ funds,” prosecutors said in a court record filed on Friday.
“In doing so, the defendants demonstrated a complete and utter disregard for the potentially life-altering consequences that their actions inflicted on their victims—vulnerable individuals who not only lost significant funds, but also missed their actual immigration court appearances.”
US government officials said the five operated a fake law firm called “CM Bufete de Abogados Consultoria Migratoria”, despite none of them being licensed to practice law in the US. The defendants then allegedly found “clients” on Facebook and charged them “fees”, ranging from hundreds to thousands of dollars. They also crafted fake documents with US government logos.
The defendants pretended to represent their victims in sham court and other immigration proceedings, by impersonating immigration judges, lawyers and officials with federal government agencies. The justice department says that when one victim discovered the law firm was fake, the group “sent the victim aggressive messages in return, including threats of deportation and demands for additional payment”.
They have been charged with wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering conspiracy and two counts of false impersonation.
Over the past year, the Trump administration’s escalating immigration enforcement operation has seen a growing number of people impersonate immigration officials, in order to commit crimes including kidnapping and sexual assault.