A company's top manager illegally received $ 500 thousand for processing immigration documents for workers

Former vice-president of two aviation mechanics companies, Helen Quinteros, was sentenced to 12 months in prison for a fraudulent scheme, during which he illegally received money from his staff for supporting their petitions for obtaining US permanent resident status.

Фото: Depositphotos

Initially, Quinteros stated that he did not receive any payments from mechanics to support their applications, although in fact he received hundreds of thousands of dollars from 85 of them, reports Citizenship and Immigration Services.

According to his guilty plea, Kinteros demanded and received 567 480 dollars from foreign workers, although the law prohibits employers from taking money from foreign workers that the company spent on processing their immigration documents, including workers, and should not compensate for the services of lawyers. Less than half of the money collected by the defendant was actually paid to immigration lawyers who helped file the application, while Quinteros pocketed 372 715 dollars.

The man was the vice president of two aviation mechanics companies. The company's staff performed aircraft maintenance at various airports throughout the country. Quinteros was responsible for recruiting Mexican aircraft engineers to work in the United States, as well as assisting them in obtaining work visas, such as TN or H-2B.

According to the indictment, after assisting the mechanics in obtaining work visas, Quinteros agreed to help at least 85 of them in applying for permanent resident status in the United States in exchange for large sums, the collection of which was illegal. Quinteros instructed the staff to deposit money into his wife’s bank account or to make postal money transfers to hide the source of income. Other funds were transferred through the company's bank account, because Quinteros deceived the accountant, calling them “company credit from him”.

The scammer received from some workers on the 10-20 thousands of dollars. Some of them had to sell their homes and cars to pay for these illegal fees.

10 August 2017, Quinteros pleaded guilty, the court ordered him to pay 292 526 dollars illegally obtained from 52 identified victims of his scheme.

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