Unfortunately, attorneys like this give legal profession a bad name. A licensed immigration attorney in New York was arrested for allegedly falsifying and submitting fraudulent and forged affidavits of support, form I-864. This attorney is being accused in submitting fraudulent and forged affidavits of support using real tax documents, paystubs, employment letters of people, who never agreed to sponsor his clients. This scheme is illegal and unethical.
According to the Complaint unsealed today in Manhattan federal court:
"Between October 2012 and April 2015, Gnoleba Seri, 49, a licensed immigration attorney working in New York, New York, and Brooklyn, New York, engaged in a scheme to use personal information contained in legitimate immigration documents for fraudulent purposes. In his role as an immigration attorney, Mr. Seri submitted falsified and forged I-864 Forms (affidavits of support for those seeking immigrant visas) in support of his clients’ applications for immigration visas and for legal permanent resident status. Specifically, Mr. Seri would receive legitimate I-864 Forms, tax information, pay stubs, and W-2 forms from individuals sponsoring his clients, and then fraudulently submitted these documents in applications for other clients. That is, Seri submitted I-864 Forms that listed individuals as financial sponsors who had never met the people they were purportedly agreeing to sponsor. Those I-864 Forms included the sponsors’ real names, identifying information, and financial information, as well as forged signatures. These fraudulent and forged I-864 Forms all listed Seri as the preparer, and many of them were notarized by him."
Mr. Seri was charged with one count of visa fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison; one count of aggravated identity theft, which carries a mandatory consecutive minimum sentence of two years in prison; and one count of mail fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
USCIS January 15th 2016 press release can be found here.
According to the Complaint unsealed today in Manhattan federal court:
"Between October 2012 and April 2015, Gnoleba Seri, 49, a licensed immigration attorney working in New York, New York, and Brooklyn, New York, engaged in a scheme to use personal information contained in legitimate immigration documents for fraudulent purposes. In his role as an immigration attorney, Mr. Seri submitted falsified and forged I-864 Forms (affidavits of support for those seeking immigrant visas) in support of his clients’ applications for immigration visas and for legal permanent resident status. Specifically, Mr. Seri would receive legitimate I-864 Forms, tax information, pay stubs, and W-2 forms from individuals sponsoring his clients, and then fraudulently submitted these documents in applications for other clients. That is, Seri submitted I-864 Forms that listed individuals as financial sponsors who had never met the people they were purportedly agreeing to sponsor. Those I-864 Forms included the sponsors’ real names, identifying information, and financial information, as well as forged signatures. These fraudulent and forged I-864 Forms all listed Seri as the preparer, and many of them were notarized by him."
Mr. Seri was charged with one count of visa fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison; one count of aggravated identity theft, which carries a mandatory consecutive minimum sentence of two years in prison; and one count of mail fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
USCIS January 15th 2016 press release can be found here.
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