A husband-and-wife team of attorneys and an associate pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to commit immigration fraud after the U.S. Attorney's office alleged they attempted to defraud the asylum process for immigrants.
According to a Jan. 25 U.S. Department of Justice news release, Ilona Dzhamgarova, Arthur Arcadian and Igor Reznik pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiracy to commit immigration fraud, and each faces a maximum of five years in prison.
“The defendants — a husband and wife team of licensed immigration attorneys and a writer who worked with them — invented offensive lies to cheat our country’s asylum process, which is meant to protect vulnerable people who legitimately fear persecution because of their race, religion, political beliefs or sexual orientation," U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said in the release. "When attorneys cynically exploit those fears for financial gain by pedaling false claims and coaching clients to lie under oath, they abuse the trust placed in them and make a mockery of the asylum system. With their guilty pleas, the defendants are being held accountable for their serious crimes.”
Dzhamgarova and Arcadian entered guilty pleas Jan. 25, the release reported. Reznik entered a guilty plea Aug. 24, 2022.
Dzhamgarova oversaw the Dzhamgarova Firm, a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based provider of immigration services, from November 2018 until December 2021. The firm assisted clients, many of whom were foreign nationals from Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States, who were looking for U.S. citizenship, asylum or other legal status, the release stated.
The firm told some clients they were likely to get asylum in this country, despite being "fully aware that several of its customers did not lawfully qualify for asylum," the release reported.
The Dzhamgarova Firm also prepared and submitted fraudulent Form I-589 asylum applications, asylum affidavits — statements of an asylum applicant’s personal history and claimed basis for asylum, often including allegations of past persecution — and other supporting documentation, according to the release.
Members and associates of the firm coached clients to lie under oath during interviews conducted by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Asylum Officers and gave legal representation to their clients during various immigration proceedings under false pretenses, the release added.
Sentences will be handed down for all three defendants by U.S. District Court Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil in May, according to the release.
