3 Lawyers Guilty in 'Assembly-Line Fraud Factory' Calif. Asylum Scam
Although they were acquitted on some counts, three California lawyers were convicted yesterday after a three-month federal trial in Sacramento, Calif., in what prosecutors describe as an audacious asylum scam.
Partners and brothers Jagprit Singh Sekhon, 39, and Jagdip Singh Sekhon, 42, with the help of two interpreters and a third Sekhon & Sekhon attorney, Manjit Kaur Rai, 33, concocted documentation to support phony claims of ethnic, religious or political persecution for hundreds of immigrants, according to the government. The five were convicted of conspiracy to defraud the government by filing false asylum claims, along with other charges, reports the Sacramento Bee.
The law firm, which has offices in Sacramento and San Francisco, may have helped as many as 1,000 immigrants win permission to stay in the United States between 2000 and 2004 in what lead prosecutor Benjamin Wagner described at trial as “an assembly-line fraud factory that turned out hundreds of false claims.” It hasn’t yet been decided, however, whether the government will seek to reopen all of these claims.
Some immigrants represented by the law firm came from other states but falsely claimed to be residents of California in order to pursue asylum claims there, the newspaper reports.
At least one of the interpreters repeatedly plans to appeal; the newspaper article doesn’t include comments from the other defendants or their lawyers.
Free on bail since their 2006 indictments, the defendants could have their bail revoked at a hearing today. They are to be sentenced on Oct. 16, and could get between two and five years in prison. The lawyers also face potential attorney discipline sanctions, and Rai and one of the interpreters, who are not U.S. citizens, also could be deported after completing their sentences, the Bee reports.
The asylum scheme came to light after a government asylum officer in San Francisco noticed unusual similarities in Romanian asylum claims pursued by the firm, prompting further investigation, according to the newspaper.
Additional coverage:
U.S. Attorney, Eastern Dist. of Calif. (2006 press release, PDF): “Three lawyers, two translators charged in scheme to file fraudulent asylum applications”
