Matthew Podolsky, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that Kofi Amankwaa, a former immigration attorney from the Bronx, has been sentenced to 70 months in prison. Amankwaa was found guilty of supervising a multi-year scheme involving fraudulent immigration documents filed under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). He pled guilty on September 17, 2024, before U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla.
Acting U.S. Attorney Matthew Podolsky stated: "Kofi Amankwaa, a former immigration attorney, made a mockery of the U.S. immigration system and VAWA — a law that provides noncitizen victims of domestic abuse a path to lawful permanent residence status — by filing thousands of immigration documents falsely alleging that his clients were victims of abuse by their children or other family members." Podolsky further noted that Amankwaa submitted these false applications without informing his clients and collected substantial fees from them.
The fraudulent activities took place between September 2016 and November 2023. Amankwaa instructed clients to sign fraudulent Form I-360 VAWA Petitions claiming abuse by their U.S. citizen children. He signed these petitions as the attorney preparer under penalty of perjury.
Amankwaa used these filings to request advance parole travel documents for his clients, allowing them to travel abroad temporarily and return to the U.S., subsequently applying for lawful permanent resident status based on fraudulently obtained advance parole.
Despite charging clients between $3,000 and $6,000 plus administrative fees for his services, many applications were denied due to fraud allegations. Following numerous complaints about false abuse claims in November 2023, Amankwaa's law license was suspended in New York State and he was disbarred in August 2024.
In addition to his prison sentence, Amankwaa was ordered to three years of supervised release and must forfeit $13,389,000. He also agreed to pay $16,503,425 in restitution as part of his plea agreement. Victims seeking restitution can contact USANYS.VAWAFraud@usdoj.gov.
Mr. Podolsky commended Homeland Security Investigations' Newark Field Office for their investigative work and thanked the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ Office of Fraud Detection and National Security for their support.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Z. Margulies is leading the prosecution with assistance from Paralegal Specialist Samantha Roberts through the Office’s General Crimes Unit.
