LA man gets prison for immigration fraud
The Associated Press
Article Launched: 03/14/2007 04:19:27 PM PDT


LOS ANGELES- An immigration consultant who appeared regularly on local Iranian TV was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in federal prison on Wednesday for creating phony visa applications for foreign workers to enter the United States.
Henry Hossein Haghighi Heguman, 61, was sentenced in federal court. He pleaded guilty in September to five charges, including conspiracy and immigration fraud.

Defense attorney Richard Novak has said his client has "taken responsibility for what he did."

Three co-defendants pleaded guilty earlier and await sentencing.

In a plea agreement, the West Hills man said that he prepared as many as 99 phony applications for clients who were charged $6,000 to $24,000 each.

Prosecutors said he submitted applications that falsely indicated a dental office, beauty salon and other companies were unable to find qualified U.S. citizens to fill jobs and needed to hire his clients.

Some businesses agreed to be named in the petitions but others were named without their consent. Most of the clients never went to work for the stated companies, prosecutors said.


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