French couple charged with immigration fraud in LA

Carolyn Hileman - The Voice* | July 5, 2008

A French couple has been charged with defrauding French residents out of thousands of dollars by making false promises of providing them jobs and work permits in the United States, authorities said.

Deborah Sion, 25, was arrested in Van Nuys Thursday by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents after being charged with mail fraud, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and transfer of false identification documents. Also charged in the case is her husband Isaac Peres, 27, who is in custody in France, where he is facing charges in an unrelated fraud scheme.

Sion was ordered held without bond pending an Aug. 4 arraignment in federal court, U.S. attorney’s spokesman Thom Mrozek said.

According to court documents, the couple posted ads on the Internet offering jobs for French workers at restaurants in the Los Angeles area and casinos in Las Vegas. Sion told interested applicants she could help them get legal immigration status through a green card lottery program and that application for the program cost between 1500 to 2700 Euros (or $2,358 to $4,244), depending on additional services such as travel and housing assistance she could sell to the victims.

Contributor's website: http://thevoice.name

Similar posts:

*Content posted by a user may not be completely written by that user. Content from another source is cited in either block quotes, with quotes or with a link to the original material. Content from other sites is posted for commentary and news purposes under fair use. Each user is responsible for their own postings and a particular posting should not be construed as being endorsed by this site or it's owner.