The police have charged a New York-based immigration attorney with asylum fraud, after the alleged submission of fraudulent forms for over 180 of her clients. Geoffrey S Berman, the Southern District of New York’s US Attorney, says that 42-year-old Andreea Dumitru has been charged with making fraudulent statements.
District Court Judge, Lewis A Kaplan, has been assigned the case, with Berman saying that Dumitru, who is also sometimes known by the name of Andreea Dumitru Parcalaboiu, could face prison time if found guilty of her alleged crimes. Angel M Menendez, the Special Agent-in-Charge of the Homeland Security Investigations division of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, says that Dumitru allegedly used her position to defraud the US government with the submission of fake documents claiming asylum, taking up valuable time and resources, and causing an increase in waiting time for valid asylum seekers.
Patricia Menges, the director of the New York Asylum Office of US Citizenship and Immigration Services, said that the office is proud of the fraud detection officers’ hard work, which results in these kinds of important cases, making sure that immigration fraudsters face justice.
Dumitru is alleged to have been involved in a scheme that saw fake I-589 forms submitted in conjunction with asylum claims, with more than 180 applications allegedly containing knowingly fraudulent statements about the criminal histories, locations, and tales of alleged persecution of the applicants, which Dumitru certified as being correct and true despite knowing the penalty was perjury.