A Ronkonkoma woman is dealing with legal costs after Nassau prosecutors noted she posed as an immigration attorney and stole greater than $30,000 from immigrants residing within the country illegally who had been trying to find felony assist.
court statistics exhibit Tania Gonzalez, forty four, faces diverse grand larceny counts together with a scheme to defraud cost and was arraigned June eight. Her lawyer, Kristin Galison, proven Monday that Gonzalez pleaded now not responsible. She declined to remark further on the case.
performing Nassau District legal professional Joyce Smith stated in a statement Monday that Gonzalez “allegedly deceived hardworking immigrants by using promising to aid them on their route to obtaining U.S. Residency.”
Smith’s office mentioned Gonzalez additionally has used the names Tania Ayala and Tania Gonzalez Renderos and will spend a highest of 3½to 7 years in reformatory if convicted of the charges.
Prosecutors observed the fraud took area between January 2016 and January 2020, when Gonzalez instructed victims they qualified for a ten-12 months visa if they had been within the u.S. For a decade — besides the fact that they’d entered the nation illegally. But authorities talked about no such visa exists.
The defendant asked for “a considerable down payment” from the victims, based on prosecutors. They pointed out Gonzalez in lots of situations then filed fraudulent purposes for asylum with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration services on the victims’ behalf without their competencies.
After that, USCIS offered employment authorization files to the victims, pending the company’s motion on the fashioned asylum purposes. Gonzalez allegedly used these documents to display the victims she was working to gain the visas she promised, based on prosecutors.
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but govt officers said they learned after processing the functions for asylum that the applications had been filed with out the victims’ knowledge. Smith’s workplace mentioned prosecutors did a joint investigation with USCIS’ Fraud Detection and countrywide protection Directorate.
legislation enforcement officials pointed out they suspect Gonzalez may have defrauded even more americans and are asking anybody who can also have been victimized to name the district lawyer’s office of Immigrant Affairs at 516-571-7756.