Thread: Former restaurant operator, accomplice sentenced for immigration document fraud

Former restaurant operator, accomplice sentenced for immigration document fraud scheme

US attorneys: Financial scheme targeted people seeking legitimate immigration documents

POSTED TODAY, 4:11 PM UPDATED TODAY, 4:11 PM



By Troy Blevins
Web - News Editor

SAN ANTONIO - The former operator of the Los Compadres Restaurant, in La Vernia, Texas, was sentenced to prison for fraudulently benefiting from a financial scheme that targeted people seeking legitimate immigration documents, U.S. attorneys said.

Yolanda Hernandez de Arteaga, 49, was sentenced Friday to 2 ½ years in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release.

Hernandez de Arteaga's co-defendant, Maria de Lourdes Montano-Vicencio, 57, who is living illegally in Houston, was also sentenced to more than three years in federal prison for her role in the scheme, according to U.S. attorneys.

In addition to the prison terms, Hernandez de Arteaga and Montano-Vicencio were ordered to pay $144,063 restitution to their victims, authorities said.

"Hernandez de Arteaga and Montano-Vicencio twice victimized these immigrants," said acting U.S. Attorney Richard L. Durbin, Jr. "They first stole their money with the promise of legal papers. Then they extorted their silence with the threat of reporting them to immigration authorities."

From October 2010 through December 2012, Hernandez de Arteaga and Montano-Vicencio initiated a series of financial fraud schemes, including numerous incidents of wire fraud whereby they would induce vulnerable immigrants in the LaVernia area into giving them money in exchange for securing legal immigration status documents, according to court records.

In the schemes, Hernandez de Arteaga and Montano-Vicencio claimed to have personal contacts with immigration authorities who could provide each victim with items such as a Social Security card, a resident alien card and a work permit in about six months, U.S. attorneys said. It was part of the scheme that the two did not provide any documents to the immigrants

During the time of the conspiracy, Hernandez de Arteaga and Montano-Vicencio collected more than $100,000 from more than 60 immigrants desperate for legal immigration status documents, U.S. attorneys said. When the victim immigrants became angry because they never received any documents or refunds, Hernandez de Arteaga and Montano-Vicencio threatened to notify immigration authorities and facilitate the deportation of the immigrants if the victims made trouble, according to the charges

During the scheme, Hernandez de Arteaga wired proceeds from the scheme from LaVernia to Montano-Vicencio in Houston via Western Union or MoneyGram, according to U.S. attorneys.

In December 2014, Hernandez de Arteaga pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and five substantive counts of wire fraud. In February 2013, Montano-Vicencio pleaded guilty to four counts of wire fraud, authorities said.

"The defendants preyed on vulnerable victims and exploited them for profit," said Special Agent in Charge Christopher Combs, of FBI San Antonio. "Detecting and bringing to justice those who perpetrate these insidious fraud schemes will always be a top priority for the FBI."

http://www.ksat.com/content/pns/ksat...ud-scheme.html

Now we're getting somewhere. Fines are just another cost of doing business, but nobody wants to go to jail.
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"The defendants preyed on vulnerable victims and exploited them for profit," said Special Agent in Charge Christopher Combs, of FBI San Antonio. "Detecting and bringing to justice those who perpetrate these insidious fraud schemes will always be a top priority for the FBI."

The only victims in this scenario are Americans. These illegal aliens are not "vulnerable victims", they're the reason and cause of the whole fraud. They're the market for the fraud and other crimes. What is it about these illegal aliens that cause government officials to treat them like they're mentally disabled children instead of the mean-spiriteid, demanding, do anything to get anything they want criminals they really are, the worst of the whole lot involved in illegal immigration. If they weren't here offering people money to get them documents to defraud people in our country, no one would be trying to help them out. Illegal aliens are the criminals enticing, luring and manipulating everyone they come in contact with here. So what is it about them?

I wonder. Is it because so many of them are short and small? Is this rooted in racism? Our government not treating a short small Caucasian illegal alien breaking our laws the same way it treats big tall black men?

I wonder. Could it be our government is actually a bunch of bigots and racists on the take with the cartels to put down certain Americans by treating a bunch of little foreigners in a superior sympathetic better manner?

I wonder.

"Hernandez de Arteaga and Montano-Vicencio

Neither of them was named Smith or Jones.

Originally Posted by Newmexican

Neither of them was named Smith or Jones.

Yeah, I noticed that! Is that Latino on Latino crime like they measure black on black crime?