Woman charged with immigration scam

http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_3332929

Hundreds stung: Officials allege she represented herself as an agent of the INS, and could provide residency cards for a fee

By Pamela Manson
The Salt Lake Tribune

Authorities say hundreds of immigrants flocked to see Pavlina Dimovski Lopez at a Murray hotel, pulled in by her boast that she was an "immigration" employee who could tap into the system and get them legal residency cards.

Eager customers waited eight or nine hours to see the woman, who allegedly promised to cut through red tape and accomplish in a month what normally took years.

But it was all a scam, according to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Agents say Lopez was just pretending to work for the agency and never procured legal status for anyone, despite collecting fees of up to $1,500 per person.

On Wednesday, a complaint was unsealed in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City accusing Lopez of six counts of false personation. The 46-year-old, who has residences in North Highlands, Calif., and Clearwater, Fla., faces up to three years in prison for each count.

In a statement filed with the court, ICE Special Agent Lillian Acuna recounts interviews with six immigrants who said Lopez helped them fill out immigration forms for a fee. In one case, the fake agent offered to travel to Peru and bring a client's family into the United States. All said they never received their documentation.

The immigrants also described seeing hundreds of customers waiting to see Lopez. One witness, identified as P.M.C., said Lopez assured him that her supervisor was a high-ranking official.

"Lopez also showed him identification with a picture that she claimed was her immigration identification," Acuna wrote.

She added that Lopez has never worked for ICE either under her own name or her aliases, which include Pavilina Lopez, Paulina Dimovski Lopez and Paulina Dumovski.

Lopez, who allegedly told some of her customers that she worked in ICE's office in Sacramento, Calif., is accused of committing her crimes between February and December 2004. She was arrested in Florida and is scheduled to appear in court in Utah on Jan. 12.

Give the gal a medal before we send her home! it serves those people right to get scammed trying to take a shortcut if you ask me. LOL

exactly! what I was going to say hahahahhahhha got taken in by one of thier own---

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Originally Posted by JuniusJnr

Give the gal a medal before we send her home! it serves those people right to get scammed trying to take a shortcut if you ask me. LOL

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That's exactly how I feel. Of course the OBL will try to spin this as the invaders are being victimized and exploited by evil whitey as if they are innocent pawns in all of this. They'll say oh if only they were legalized then they wouldn't have to go thru all this trouble. :roll: :evil:

I know. It sounds like a broken record sometimes. It's going to be like a miracle. If they are legal citizens I guess all the problems are going to just vanish. They are all of a sudden going to be making enough money so that five families don't all have to live in a house meant for one family. They are going to learn to stop having too many kids and contributing to overpopulation. They are going to stop being gang members, start speaking English in school so all the kids can learn, and they will pay their own bills and stop lining up for food stamps.

Yeah, right! That's gonna happen!

PS--along that same vein. There is one benefit I would gladly give and that is this:
Pass out aspirin to each female illegal who comes across the border with instructions to constantly hold it between her knees no matter what. Birth control!