POSTED: 12/17/2015 11:01:44 AM PST27 UPDATED: ABOUT 9 HOURS AGO

SAN JOSE - A former immigration consultant from San Jose has been sentenced in federal court to one year and six months in prison for encouraging illegal immigration, mail fraud and submitting false tax returns.

Evelyn Sineneng-Smith, 68, was given the sentence Monday by U.S. District Judge Ronald Whyte, who also imposed a $15,000 fine and ordered her to pay $43,550 in restitution to several victims to compensate for the fees they paid her.

Sineneng-Smith ran an immigration consulting business in San Jose from 1990 to 2008. Most of her clients were Filipino citizens who had come to the United States on visitors' visas, according to prosecutors.

She was convicted by a jury in Whyte's court in 2013 of two counts of encouraging illegal immigration for personal financial gain and two counts of mail fraud.

Those counts concerned two female clients who had obtained work in a residential healthcare facility while on visitors' visas and who were seeking labor certifications to become permanent residents. Sineneng-Smith assisted them in filing applications but failed to inform them they were not eligible to obtain permanent residence, according to prosecutors.

In January, Sineneng-Smith pleaded guilty to two additional charges of submitting false tax returns for the years 2002 and 2003.

http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-cou...al-immigration