Damian Williams, the US Legal professional for the Southern District of New York, introduced that ULADZIMIR DANSKOI, the CEO of an immigration providers agency, and JULIA GREENBERG, an immigration lawyer, have been discovered responsible yesterday in Manhattan federal courtroom of conspiracy to defraud the US and conspiracy to commit immigration fraud following a two-week trial earlier than United States District Choose J. Paul Oetken.
U.S. Legal professional Damian Williams stated: “Asylum is an extremely vital profit designed to guard the world’s most susceptible individuals. The defendants, a CEO of an immigration providers agency with places of work in each Manhattan and Brooklyn and a licensed lawyer, exploited that system for monetary acquire by knowingly peddling false claims and training shoppers to lie underneath oath. Yesterday, a unanimous jury convicted them each for these crimes.”
In response to the allegations within the Indictment and proof offered at trial:
A New York Metropolis immigration providers agency, “Russian America,” labored with shoppers – primarily aliens from Russia and the Commonwealth of Impartial States – searching for visas, asylum, citizenship, and different types of authorized standing in the US. Amongst different issues, Russian America suggested sure of their shoppers within the method through which they have been almost definitely to acquire asylum on this nation, totally understanding that these shoppers didn’t legitimately qualify for asylum. The agency additionally ready and submitted to United States Citizenship and Immigration Providers (“USCIS”) shoppers’ fraudulent asylum software paperwork and affidavits, usually together with fraudulent allegations of previous persecution. Members and associates of the agency additionally coached sure shoppers to lie underneath oath throughout interviews performed by USCIS Asylum Officers and offered authorized illustration to their shoppers throughout varied immigration proceedings.
ULADZIMIR DANSKOI and beforehand convicted codefendant Yury Mosha operated and maintained Russian America’s Brooklyn and Manhattan places of work, respectively. Every suggested and aided their shoppers to hunt asylum underneath fraudulent pretenses. Amongst different issues, DANSKOI suggested a consumer, a confidential FBI supply (the “Supply”), to hunt asylum on the fraudulent foundation that the consumer was persecuted in Ukraine for being a homosexual male, when in actual fact DANSKOI totally understood that the Supply was a heterosexual male who suffered no such persecution. DANSKOI submitted the Supply’s fraudulent asylum software and Affidavit, filed underneath penalty of perjury, to USCIS.
In the meantime, Mosha inspired a second consumer, a Authorities cooperator (the “Cooperator”), to ascertain and keep on-line blogs that have been crucial of the consumer’s house nation as a approach to generate a false declare that, based mostly on the consumer’s invented political opinion, it was unsafe for him to return to his native nation. Mosha additionally personally ready and submitted the Cooperator’s asylum software, Affidavit, and associated paperwork underneath penalty of perjury, understanding that these paperwork contained materials falsehoods.
When the Supply and Cooperator wanted to organize for an interview, performed underneath oath by a USCIS asylum officer, DANSKOI and Mosha linked every to JULIA GREENBERG, a New York immigration lawyer, who coached each shoppers to mislead Asylum Officers and offered authorized illustration to those shoppers throughout immigration proceedings. For instance, GREENBERG, understanding that the Supply was a heterosexual male who didn’t undergo persecution in his house nation, ready the Supply for questioning by an Asylum Officer, suggested the Supply learn how to falsely reply sure anticipated questions from the Asylum Officer, and instructed the Supply to decorate and alter the Supply’s look in a way that comported with GREENBERG’s imaginative and prescient of a homosexual male.
DANSKOI and Mosha additionally agreed to assist sure Russian America shoppers receive employment visas by creating faux leases and staging places of work to create the impression to USCIS that these shoppers had professional jobs ready for them in the US.
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DANSKOI, 55, and GREENBERG, 42, every initially from Belarus and at present residing in Staten Island, New York, have been convicted of 1 depend of conspiring to defraud the US and conspiring to commit immigration fraud, which carries a most sentence of 5 years in jail.
The utmost potential sentence is prescribed by Congress and is offered right here for informational functions solely, as any sentencing of the defendants can be decided by a choose.
Mr. Williams praised the excellent investigative work of the FBI’s New York Eurasian Organized Crime Job Drive, Homeland Safety Investigations, and USCIS’s New York Asylum Workplace and Fraud Detection and Nationwide Safety Unit. Mr. Williams additionally thanked United States Customs and Border Safety for its help.
This case is being prosecuted by the Workplace’s Cash Laundering and Transnational Legal Enterprises Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys David R. Felton and Jonathan E. Rebold are accountable for the prosecution.
