2 Partners, 1 Associate & 2 Interpreters Get Time in Immigration Fraud Case
Two partners and an associate of a small California law firm were sentenced to federal prison terms Friday for helping immigrants win asylum in the United States based on false documents.
Jagprit Singh Sekhon, 39, got nine years and his brother, Jagdip Singh Sekhon, 42, got five years, the Sacramento Bee reported.
An associate with the now-defunct Sekhon & Sekhon firm, Manjit Kaur Rai, 33, got two and a half years.
Two interpreters were sentenced to seven and a half years, and four months, respectively.
All were found guilty in 2009 after a trial that lasted more than three months. Rai and one of the interpreters, who is not a citizen, will be deported when they are released from prison.
Jagprit Sekhon told the judge he was primarily responsible for the fraud, which he didn’t discuss with his brother. Meanwhile, Rai, a new law school graduate, simply followed his instructions.
“I wish to hell he had testified to that to the jury,” attorney Clyde Blackmon, who represented Rai, told the judge in the Sacramento federal court case. “We might have a very different situation here.”
For more details, read the full article.
Additional coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Misconduct By 3 Sekhon Firm Lawyers Puts Up to 700 Clients in Peril”
Sacto 9-1-1 (Sacramento Bee): “Judge sends Romanian interpreter to prison in Sacramento immigration fraud case”
