Thread: GA: Duluth attorney pleads guilty to immigration fraud

Duluth attorney pleads guilty to immigration fraud
November 25, 2009 | 10:24 AM
ATLANTA — A 63-year-old Duluth attorney plead guilty Nov. 18 in federal court to one count of filing a false document with the Department of Labor after an attempt to obtain legal status for a client.

According to information presented in court, Sai H. Lee charged an illegal alien $25,000 to substitute his name on an approved labor certificate issued to an employer for a different foreign worker. She then assisted that client in using the labor certificate to apply for Lawful Resident Status in the United States based upon employment.

Because of the ruse, Lee's client was granted legal status as a lawful resident alien.

Further investigation revealed that she assisted at least 16 other aliens in the same way. Authorities said in some instances, aliens who hired Lee to help them obtain legal status did not know they were supposed to be working for a particular employer when they became legal resident aliens. In many instances, the employers did not know that she used labor certificates issued to them to assist her clients in obtaining lawful status through fraud.

"Immigration fraud poses a severe threat to national security and public safety because it creates a vulnerability that may enable terrorists, criminals and illegal aliens to gain entry to and remain in the United States," said Kenneth Smith, Special Agent in Charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Office of Investigations in Atlanta.

Lee could receive 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. She also agreed to forfeit $100,000, the money she charged the 17 aliens.

Sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 18, 2010.

www.gwinnettherald.com

Another self-serving, crooked lawyer...who's surprised? And where did this 'poor immigrant living in the shadows and working for slave wages' get that much money?????