http://www.wxii12.com/news/4251851/detail.html

Ex-Immigration Lawyer Sentenced
Woman Admits To Arranging Sham Marriage For Client
POSTED: 5:33 pm EST March 3, 2005
UPDATED: 6:01 pm EST March 3, 2005

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- A Greensboro lawyer once nationally recognized for her pro bono work with immigrants was sentenced Thursday to a year and a day in federal prison for breaking the law for immigrant clients.

Judge James Beaty sentenced Manlin Chee in U.S. District Court in Winston-Salem.

Chee pleaded guilty Nov. 23 to defrauding the United States by submitting false paperwork on behalf of immigrant clients.

She admitted to arranging a sham marriage so one client could remain in the country and falsely portraying another in legal documents as a homosexual who would face persecution if sent back to Egypt. Both clients were undercover government informants.

Supporter Tim Hopkins said Chee was only guilty of helping people to a fault.

Prosecutors argued that Chee not only submitted false paperwork, but also lied to an Immigration and Naturalization Service official during a secretly taped meeting in Charlotte.