News Releases and Statements

Galima Murry, a U.S. Army sergeant, was sentenced today to serve eight months in federal prison for conspiracy to commit marriage fraud and making false statements regarding that fraud to the government.

In addition to the two Los Angeles-area residents, special agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) arrested two Chinese nationals who each paid tens of thousands of dollars to enter into sham marriages with United States citizens to obtain Green Cards. The United States citizens in these situations were actually undercover HSI agents.

According to the indictment, Elvis Harold Reyes, 56, of Brandon, owned and operated EHR Ministries Inc., and portrayed himself as an immigration attorney, pastor, accountant, immigration expert, former immigration official and former federal law enforcement officer.

On Monday, March 2, 2020, Gary Peck, 44, of Clark County, Washington, was sentenced to 36 months in federal prison and 3 years’ supervised release for his role in a credit card fraud ring that operated in the greater Portland metropolitan area from February 2017 to February 2018.

The charge stems from a bribery investigation involving Benito Barrientes, 42, from Lyford; Exy Adelaida Gomez, 42, from Los Fresnos; and Damian Ortiz, 30, and her brother and McAllen attorney Roel Alanis, 39, both from Weslaco. They were charged with conspiracy to commit bribery and bribery in relation to obtaining alien detainee roster lists.

The three defendants were arrested last month after being named in a criminal complaint that alleged a conspiracy to commit immigration fraud. Today’s indictment expands the scope of the alleged scheme and includes new details about the immigration fraud portion of the scheme.

Ana Molina, 56, owned and operated Ana Molina & Associates, a/k/a Molina Multilegal Services, on Castor Avenue in Philadelphia, PA, through which she falsely claimed to be an attorney (or at times a paralegal) who could obtain lawful immigration status for them from United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

Rajesh Ramcharan, 45, Diann Ramcharan, 37, Sergeant Galima Murry, 31, and Pastor Ken Harvell, 60, were found guilty, Jan. 17, after a nine-day jury trial for conspiracy to commit marriage fraud and making false statements regarding that fraud to the government.

Mihae Park, 54, was sentenced by United States District Judge Josephine L. Staton, who scheduled a March 6 hearing on the amount of restitution to be paid. 

The indictment alleges that the defendants exploited the EB-2(a) visa program by submitting bogus alien worker petitions on behalf of companies – some legitimate, some created specifically for the scheme – that purportedly wanted to hire foreign nationals after exhausting attempts to find suitable workers in the United States.

Cristian Alvarado Morales, 30, and Anderson Garces Lopez, 29, both of Tulsa, pleaded guilty Monday to selling fraudulent social security and U.S. permanent resident cards to individuals unlawfully living in the United States, announced U.S. Attorney Trent Shores.

Jenny Hernandez, 51, of Parkland, Florida, was sentenced to 18 months in prison after previously pleading guilty to visa fraud. Hernandez attempted to obtain visas with false information for individuals from overseas.

Mu Sigma – a large, advanced analytics service provider headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, with its main delivery center in Bangalore, India – was illegally circumventing U.S. government H-1B visa regulations by actively employing B1 visitor visa holders under contract within the U.S.

Dongyuan Li (李冬媛), 41, of Irvine, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit immigration fraud and one count of visa fraud. Li was one of 19 defendants named in a series of indictments unsealed earlier this year which resulted from an massive probe by ICE's HSI Los Angeles and IRS Criminal Investigation.

Abhijit Prasad, 52, received multiple convictions Tuesday, including 21 counts of visa fraud and two counts of aggravated identity theft from a federal jury. Prasad was previously indicted on related charges during 2016.

Kari Scattaglia, 40, of Sylmar, and another former DMV employee co-defendant Lisa Terraciano, 52, of North Hollywood, pleaded guilty, Nov. 3, 2017, to a conspiracy to commit bribery, to commit identity fraud, and to commit unauthorized access of a computer.

James Keegan, 57, of Cicero, Illinois, fraudulently offered immigration advocacy services, including guaranteed U.S. permanent resident status, in exchange for a fluctuating fee that averaged $3,000 per applicant.

The individual, Arash Vakhshouri, 40, of Las Vegas, Nevada, was charged by the grand jury with submitting false documents to a government agency and aggravated identity theft and will be prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney for Connecticut.

According to court records, while living in California, Gloudina and Chantelle Robbertse devised and executed a scheme to defraud the CEDD. They continued the scheme when they moved to Idaho in April 2017.

U.S. District Court Judge Laurie Smith Camp sentenced Sebastian Velasquez-Ramos, 47, to 28 months in federal prison following his criminal convictions for fraudulently using a Social Security card, falsely claiming U.S. citizenship, and aggravated identity theft. Velasquez-Ramos previously pleaded guilty to the charges.