An immigration services firm CEO and an immigration attorney were convicted of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and conspiracy to commit immigration fraud.
Russian America CEO Uladzimir Danskoi, 55, and attorney Julia Greenberg, 42, were found guilty Dec. 19 in Manhattan federal court following a two-week trial presided over by U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken, according to a Dec. 20 U.S. Department of Justice news release.
“Asylum is an incredibly important benefit designed to protect the world’s most vulnerable people," U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in the release. "The defendants, a CEO of an immigration services firm with offices in both Manhattan and Brooklyn and a licensed attorney, exploited that system for financial gain by knowingly peddling false claims and coaching clients to lie under oath. Yesterday, a unanimous jury convicted them both for these crimes.”
Danskoi and Greenberg, both from Belarus and currently residing in Staten Island, N.Y., were convicted of one count of conspiring to defraud the U.S. and conspiring to commit immigration fraud, which carries a potential maximum prison sentence of five years, the release reported.
According to the allegations and evidence provided at the trial, the New York City immigration services firm Russian America worked with clients who were primarily foreign nationals from Russia and the larger Commonwealth of Independent States seeking visas, asylum, citizenship and other forms of legal status in the U.S., the release reported Russian America coached some of its clients regarding how they were most likely to be granted asylum in the country despite knowing those clients didn't qualify for proper asylum.
Furthermore, the firm created and submitted clients' false affidavits and documents for asylum applications to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, according to the release.
Danskoi and his previously convicted codefendant Yury Mosha ran and maintained Russian America's Brooklyn and Manhattan offices, respectively. Each one gave their clients advice and assistance regarding applying for asylum on false pretenses, the release reported.
In one instance, Danskoi recommended a client, who was secretly an FBI source, apply for asylum on the false basis he was being persecuted in Ukraine for being gay, according to the release. However, Danskoi knew the source was a heterosexual man who had never experienced such persecution. Danskoi then sent the source's false asylum and affidavit, filed under penalty of perjury, to USCIS.
