Court documents reveal that one week after being exposed as part of an immigration scam, a Birmingham attorney has now cut a deal with prosecutors and will plead guilty next month. The attorney is accused of bribing a federal agent to ensure that his clients do not get deported from the US.
The plea hearing for the 58-year-old attorney, Charles Busse, who has law offices in Dearborn and Rochester Hills, is scheduled for the US District Court on 3 November, according to a Monday filing. The precise details of the agreement are not clear. Court records, unsealed last week, though, reveal that Busse has been charged with bribing an agent with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in exchange for granting favors to his clients.
Court records show that, together, the ICE agent and Busse assisted some undocumented immigrants to avoid deportation by pretending that they were involved with official federal investigations. The records make it clear that, in several cases, the Department of Homeland Security had been convinced by the ICE agent that the immigrants had information about the creation of fake IDs and drug deals when that was not the case.
Busse was paid thousands of dollars by his clients for his help and, in turn, he bribed the ICE agent. The attorney has also been charged with tax evasion and obstruction of justice, with the 48-year-old ICE agent, Clifton Divers. Divers is also charged with several offences, including misuse of his position.