VALLEY FOUR ACCUSED OF VISA FRAUD HUNDREDS OF IRANIANS IN SCAM, AGENTS SAY.Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer Three San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. business people and a Van Nuys attorney were in custody Tuesday on federal charges of filing bogus employment visa applications on behalf of hundreds of immigrants, officials said. In what federal agents called one of the largest such schemes ever uncovered in Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, , hundreds of people - most of them Iranian nationals - reportedly paid $8,000 to $30,000 to obtain fraudulent employment visas to come to the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. . ``This kind of fraud undermines the integrity of our nation's legal immigration immigration, entrance of a person (an alien) into a new country for the purpose of establishing permanent residence. Motives for immigration, like those for migration generally, are often economic, although religious or political factors may be very important. system and generates millions of dollars in illicit income for those involved,'' said Loraine Brown, special agent-in-charge for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is the largest investigative arm of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and is responsible for identifying and dismantling vulnerabilities regarding the nation's border, economic, transportation and infrastructure , or ICE, agency in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. . Those arrested included Henry Hossein Haghighi Heguman, 59, of West Hills, a businessman who appears regularly on Iranian TV and was described in the criminal complaint as the leader of the scheme. Other suspects are attorney Bita Logham Hoffman, 39, a partner in the Van Nuys firm Hoffman, Rahmaty & Associates; Farideh Mir, 58, of Sherman Oaks, an employee of Hoffman's law firm; and Grace Houra Shahraz Edison, 49, a Canoga Park businesswoman. They are charged with conspiracy to commit visa fraud The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. . If convicted, each faces up to 10 years in prison. The investigation began in April 2002, when ICE special agents received several leads from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officers at the California Service Center, where employment-visa petitions are processed. Employment visas are normally issued when a U.S. business needs a person to fill a specific job and is unable to find a qualified worker in the local labor pool. An affidavit in the case - unsealed Monday when the defendants made their first court appearance - describes how one man hired Heguman in 1999 to help him come to the United States and Heguman suggested that the man seek to immigrate im·mi·grate v. im·mi·grat·ed, im·mi·grat·ing, im·mi·grates v.intr. To enter and settle in a country or region to which one is not native. See Usage Note at migrate. v.tr. as a pizza cook. The man acknowledged he had no experience working in restaurants or in the food industry, but Heguman persuaded a Glendale pizza parlor to file an employment-visa petition on the man's behalf, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. ICE agents. The vast majority of those who immigrated to the United States under visas investigated in the case never went to work for the petitioning businesses. Only 13 percent of the immigrants did so, ICE agents said. Agents said they found the disparity when they examined more than 550 employment-visa applications filed by Heguman and his associates from May 1993 to early 2003 and compared them with tax-withholding records maintained by the California Employment Development Department. Heguman and his associates relied upon more than 200 Southern California businesses, ranging from medical clinics to auto parts stores, to serve as petitioners for their clients, according to the ICE agents. Troy Anderson, (213) 974-8985 troy.anderson(at)dailynews.com |
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