Illegal immigrant in Va. Beach gets 4 years for fraud

By Tim McGlone
The Virginian-Pilot
© August 2, 2011

An illegal immigrant living in Virginia Beach was sentenced Monday to nearly four years in federal prison and likely will be deported after he admitted to being a runner in a violent document fraud ring.
Oscar Zaraut-Correa, 26, admitted that his job was to seek out customers for fake green cards and Social Security cards and deliver the documents. He operated from South Hampton Roads to Williamsburg.
Correa helped sell more than 100 sets of phony documents for around $200 a set, prosecutors said.
The ring, based in Mexico, had cells in 19 cities in 11 states, including three cells in Virginia. More than $1 million has been wired to ring leaders in Mexico, prosecutors said. The ring had a reputation of attacking rival document vendors to put them out of business.
Co-defendant Edy Oliverez-Jiminez is charged with being the area supervisor. He is accused of killing a rival document vendor in Little Rock, Ark., and is set to stand trial in October.
Of 25 individuals indicted last fall, 22 have pleaded guilty.
Correa pleaded guilty to conspiring to produce and transfer false identification documents and possessing a document-making device. U.S. District Judge James R. Spencer in Richmond sentenced him to 46 months.
Federal prosecutors asked the judge to sentence Correa to nearly six years in prison. They argued that Correa helped set up an attack on a rival document vendor, which failed.
Correa's attorneys said Correa caused the attack to be aborted. Citing Correa's lack of criminal record, the attorneys asked for a sentence of two years.

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