TAMPA – A Florida man was sentenced Monday to twenty years and 9 months in federal jail for mail fraud and aggravated id theft in reference to a scheme the place he posed as an immigration lawyer and filed a whole lot of fraudulent asylum functions. This case was investigated by Homeland Safety Investigations (HSI), United States Citizenship and Immigration Companies (USCIS) and the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Workplace.
“This legal defrauded a whole lot of victims who thought they had been beginning a path to authorized citizenship,” mentioned HSI Tampa Assistant Particular in Cost Michael Cochran. “Identification and profit fraud are crimes that threaten the nationwide safety and public security of the U.S. by creating vulnerabilities to our authorized immigration system. Due to HSI particular brokers, and our companions with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Companies and Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Workplace, he’ll now be held accountable for his crimes.”
In response to courtroom paperwork, Elvis Harold Reyes, 56, of Brandon, who owned and operated EHR Ministries Inc., portrayed himself as an immigration lawyer. He isn’t and has by no means been a licensed lawyer. Reyes focused undocumented immigrants from Spanish-speaking international locations who had been searching for Florida driver licenses and work authorization. Reyes gave false, inaccurate and incomplete authorized and immigration recommendation to victims to induce them to retain his providers and people of EHR Ministries.
Victims retained and paid Reyes to characterize them in immigration-related issues earlier than USCIS and different companies. Reyes filed fraudulent immigration functions within the victims’ names, searching for asylum reduction and withholding-of-removal protections supplied for underneath the United Nations Conference In opposition to Torture. In doing so, Reyes falsified solutions to questions within the asylum functions—fabricating tales about threats, persecution and the candidates’ concern of returning to their native international locations. Reyes didn’t inform the victims of the solutions that he had supplied on their behalf. He additionally didn’t inform the victims in regards to the authorized, administrative and different immigration-related penalties which may observe from submitting for asylum reduction or for Conference In opposition to Torture safety.
“Posing as an immigration lawyer, Reyes focused a whole lot of weak individuals within the Tampa neighborhood along with his immigration rip-off,” mentioned USCIS Tampa District Director Michael Borgen. “USCIS is dedicated to discovering and stopping those that wish to cheat the immigration system and preserving it for many who qualify for immigration advantages.”
Reyes filed greater than 225 fraudulent functions, meaning to trigger sufferer lack of greater than $1 million. His victims’ precise losses exceeded $411,000. Reyes spent the legal proceeds on, amongst different issues, journey, luxurious buying, spas, jewellery, beautification/anti-aging procedures and an allowance for his girlfriend.
Reyes threatened aggrieved victims who confronted him by claiming that he may have them deported. And, when investigative reporting revealed Reyes’s scheme, he tried to impede justice by having a pal wipe his computer systems.
“It’s appalling that Elvis Reyes was preying on weak people residing in concern inside our county,” mentioned Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister. “I’m pleased with our detectives, who totally investigated claims made by every sufferer, and our diligent efforts to achieve undocumented members of our neighborhood by each English and Spanish PSAs, encouraging them to return ahead in the event that they had been taken benefit of by Mr. Reyes. I’m assured that these efforts in the end helped result in a conviction.”
This case was prosecuted by Center District Florida U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace, Assistant United States Lawyer Frank Murray. Reyes had pleaded responsible Dec. 15, 2020. The Courtroom deferred consideration of sufferer restitution to a later date.
HSI is a directorate of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the principal investigative arm of the U.S. Division of Homeland Safety (DHS), answerable for investigating transnational crime and threats, particularly these legal organizations that exploit the worldwide infrastructure by which worldwide commerce, journey and finance transfer. HSI’s workforce of over 10,400 staff consists of greater than 7,100 Particular Brokers assigned to 220 cities all through the US and 80 abroad areas in 53 international locations. HSI’s worldwide presence represents DHS’s largest investigative regulation enforcement presence overseas and one of many largest worldwide footprints in U.S. regulation enforcement.