In New York, lawyers of two companies were detained, who taught citizens of Russia and the CIS to lie and forge documents when applying for asylum. RIA Novosti reports this with reference to the US Department of Justice.
“Ilona Jamgarova and Artur Arkadyan, two immigration lawyers based in Brooklyn, and their colleague Igor Reznik have been charged with conspiracy to commit false information fraud in order to obtain asylum,” the agency said. >
All three were taken into custody. Six more defendants in the case were charged with conspiracy against the United States and conspiracy to commit fraud.
According to the investigation, two law firms, Dzhamgarova Firm and Russian America, helped their clients obtain American visas, citizenship and seek asylum. The clients of the lawyers were, as the Ministry of Justice informed, mainly citizens of Russia and the CIS.
The companies’ lawyers, in turn, advised clients so that they would receive asylum, although they did not have a legal right to it. For example, organizations submitted fictitious documents to the US Citizenship and Immigration Service. In addition, according to the department, firms have been trained to lie under oath and during immigration procedures for asylum.
Earlier, the US Department of Justice accused the former employee of the embassy in Moscow Olesya Krasilova of fraud, conspiracy to steal documents and money laundering.