Thread: CA - Woman who scammed immigrants rearrested

Woman who scammed immigrants rearrested
2:00 a.m. March 12, 2009

A woman who last year pleaded guilty to three counts of grand theft for scamming immigrants has been arrested again on similar charges, two weeks shy of her sentencing for the original crimes.

Gladys Escobar, 64, was arrested yesterday morning by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in the Los Angeles area, where she did business out of an office in her sister's beauty parlor. In the old case and the new case, she is accused of stealing from a total of seven people, all of whom lived in San Diego County.

Escobar did business in the Fallbrook and Vista areas chiefly through word of mouth, ICE said, setting up meetings in private homes with prospective clients who hoped to legalize their status. According to the San Diego County District Attorney's Office, she claimed to be a lawyer and would file bogus asylum applications on behalf of undocumented immigrants. Some of her clients wound up deported.

She was arrested in November 2007 and charged in San Diego with three counts of felony grand theft. Escobar admitted taking about $17,000 from clients and agreed to pay restitution as part of her guilty plea in October. She faced up to 270 days in jail, said District Attorney's Office spokesman Steve Walker.

Her sentencing was scheduled for March 26. She has been out on bail.
Escobar, a U.S. citizen born in El Salvador, operated in Los Angeles as Escobar Income Tax Service. –L.B.

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/ ... ety/?metro

Scams everywhere......