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Immigration fraud

Police & Fire
NJ Attorney, Son Charged With Ripping Off Hundreds Of Immigrants In Bronx NJ Attorney, Son Charged With Ripping Off Hundreds Of Immigrants In Bronx
NJ Attorney, Son Charged With Ripping Off Hundreds Of Immigrants In Bronx Homeland Security agents smashed an operation run by a New Jersey father and son who for years fooled hundreds of immigrants living in the Bronx into paying thousands of dollars for services that only got many of them deported, authorities said. Instead of legitimately fast-tracking their clients’ bids for legal U.S. residency, attorney Kofi Amankwaa and his son, Kofi Jr., filed false petitions to the federal government claiming that the immigrants’ children had abused them, authorities said. All this did, they said, was put the applicants on immigration officials’ radar, leading to green c…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
NJ Couple Ginned Up Immigrant Asylum Applications, Charged Clients $1,000 A Pop: Feds NJ Couple Ginned Up Immigrant Asylum Applications, Charged Clients $1,000 A Pop: Feds
NJ Couple Ginned Up Immigrant Asylum Applications, Charged Clients $1,000 A Pop: Feds A New Jersey couple who operated an immigration business from their home are facing a federal trial for submitting bogus asylum applications for clients from Sri Lanka, authorities said. Zuwairul Ameer, 61, and his wife, Claudette Ameer, 63, had been doing it since at least 2007 when a client who was approached by the FBI agreed to become a government cooperator, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger said. Applicants for asylum in the U.S. must show Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) that they have suffered persecution in their homeland because of their race, religion, …

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
'Altared' State: NJ Sisters Admit Staging Sham Marriages To Keep Non-Citizens In US 'Altared' State: NJ Sisters Admit Staging Sham Marriages To Keep Non-Citizens In US
'Altared' State: NJ Sisters Admit Staging Sham Marriages To Keep Non-Citizens In US UPDATE: Two sisters from Newark admitted obtaining phony marriage licenses and staging bogus wedding ceremonies, receptions and other events in an elaborate scheme to help undocumented non-citizens avoid deportation, federal authorities said. Regina Johnson, 59, and her sister, Andrea Torres, ran the sham scam for nearly three years, recruiting and paying U.S. citizens to pose as spouses, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said. Their clients: non-citizens looking to remain in the country despite the lack of legal status or proper documentation. As part of the fraud, the sisters "…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
NJ Man Who Scouted Landmarks As Terror Targets Gets 12 Years In Federal Prison NJ Man Who Scouted Landmarks As Terror Targets Gets 12 Years In Federal Prison
NJ Man Who Scouted Landmarks As Terror Targets Gets 12 Years In Federal Prison UPDATE: A convicted New Jersey “sleeper agent” for Hezbollah who scoped out potential terrorism targets in New York, Boston, Washington, D.C. and elsewhere was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison. Alexei Saab, a 45-year-old software developer who lived in Morristown, must serve just about all of the sentence delivered in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday, May 23, because there’s no parole in the federal prison system. Saab kept up appearances as an ordinary American citizen while working for Hezbollah’s Islamic Jihad Organization (IJO) from 2000 to 2005, federal prosecutors said. Dur…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Man Posed As US Immigration Officer, Swindled Thousands From Mercer County Victim, Police Say Man Posed As US Immigration Officer, Swindled Thousands From Mercer County Victim, Police Say
Man Posed As US Immigration Officer, Swindled Thousands From Mercer County Victim, Police Say A Philadelphia man was slapped with charges after pretending to be a federal immigration officer and swindling thousands of dollars from a victim in Mercer County, authorities said Thursday. Leroy Quammie was using the pseudonym “Dill” when posing as a federal officer and “promising to expedite matters involving citizenship status within the United States” on Friday, Jan. 21, Hamilton Police said. Quammie swindled the victim out of thousands of dollars in the process, police said. Quammie turned himself into Hamilton Police on Wednesday before being charged with two counts of unauthorized …

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by Valerie Musson
News
Ex-Con In Philly Posed As Lawyer To Scam Fellow Immigrants, Feds Charge Ex-Con In Philly Posed As Lawyer To Scam Fellow Immigrants, Feds Charge
Ex-Con In Philly Posed As Lawyer To Scam Fellow Immigrants, Feds Charge An East African-born ex-con who lives in Philadelphia posed as an immigration attorney, scamming clients desperate to remain in America, federal authorities in New Jersey charged. In what immigration advocates say has become an all-too-familiar crime, Luc Fikiri Matthews, 47, misrepresented himself "in order to attract business from noncitizens who did not have legal permanent resident status in the United States," an indictment returned by a grand jury in Camden alleges. Matthews then prepared phony paperwork for these clients -- who otherwise would have been deported -- which made them e…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Black Tie Optional: NJ Sisters Charged With Staging Sham Marriages To Keep Non-Citizens In US Black Tie Optional: NJ Sisters Charged With Staging Sham Marriages To Keep Non-Citizens In US
Black Tie Optional: NJ Sisters Charged With Staging Sham Marriages To Keep Non-Citizens In US Two New Jersey sisters were charged by federal authorities with obtaining phony marriage licenses and staging bogus wedding ceremonies, receptions and other events in an elaborate scheme to help undocumented non-citizens avoid deportation. Andrea Torres, 55, and Regina Johnson, 57, recruited and paid American citizens to participate in the fraud by posing as spouses, an indictment returned by a grand jury in U.S. District Court in Newark alleges. The Newark sisters went so far as pushing clients to take photos in a variety of locations in different clothing to make it appear that they were …

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by Jerry DeMarco