Thaindian News

MIAMI (BNO NEWS) – The Ringleader of an immigration benefit fraud scheme on Friday pled guilty to charges of conspiracy to provide false statements to a federal agency.

Victor Abreu, 45, pled guilty before a U.S. District Court Judge after being indicted along with five co-conspirators, three of whom have already entered guilty pleas.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) special agents began an investigation of Victor Abreau of Abreu & Associates, based on allegations that he was involved in immigration benefit fraud. Abreu and his employees were allegedly preparing false boilerplate immigration applications for illegal immigrants, including applications for employment authorization and employment visas.

The defendants were charged with engaging in a scheme through which they solicited payments from illegal immigrants by falsely promising to assist them with immigration matters. The scheme involved the preparation of benefit applications for at least 300 individuals from Argentina, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Venezuela, and Mexico, among other countries.

After receiving payments, Abreu and his co-defendants prepared the false immigration documents. To execute the scheme, Abreu falsely purported to be an immigration attorney and consultant.

As a result of the scheme, some of the illegal immigrants obtained legitimate work authorization cards and driver’s licenses to which they were not lawfully entitled.

“The filing of false applications to obtain immigration benefits for individuals that are not authorized to be present in the United States puts the security of our communities at risk,” an ICE investigator said. “Immigration benefits like these could be exploited by dangerous criminals to obscure their identities and cover their tracks.”

The case was investigated by ICE’s Office of Investigations in Fort Lauderdale.