United States Attorney
Southern District of New York
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: U.S. ATTORNEY’S OFFICE
SEPTEMBER 12, 2008 YUSILL SCRIBNER
REBEKAH CARMICHAEL
JANICE OH
PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE
(212) 637-2600
LawFuel – MICHAEL J. GARCIA, the United States Attorney for the
Southern District of New York announced that JENNIFER ROWE
pleaded guilty today to conspiring to commit visa fraud and mail
fraud. According to the Superseding Information and other
documents filed in Manhattan federal court, as well as statements
made during ROWE’s guilty plea proceeding:
ROWE conspired with others in 2004 and 2005 to commit a
massive immigration fraud by telling non-immigrant aliens that
they were eligible for amnesty under the Immigration and
Nationality Act of 1986 (the “Amnesty Program”). ROWE and other
co-conspirators convinced non-immigrant aliens to give ROWE their
passports and payments of between $1,000 and $5,000, in exchange
for the promise of permanent residency and eventual citizenship.
In reality, these non-immigrant aliens were not eligible for the
Amnesty Program.
ROWE advertised her services in certain immigrant
communities in the New York City area, falsely promising that she
could secure permanent residency for individuals. After
receiving thousands of dollars, passports and other documentation
from non-immigrant aliens, ROWE and her co-conspirators submitted
false Amnesty Program applications to the United States
Department of Citizenship and Immigration Services on behalf of
many of these individuals. None of the Amnesty Program
applications that were submitted were accepted.
ROWE, 51, of Mount Vernon, New York, faces a maximum
sentence of ten years’ imprisonment. ROWE is scheduled to be
sentenced on January 6, 2009 before United States District Judge
Paul A. Crotty.
Mr. GARCIA praised the work of the New York Office of
the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security’s New
York Citizenship and Immigration Services Fraud Detection Unit in
the investigation of this case.
Assistant United States Attorneys EDWARD Y. KIM is in
charge of the prosecution.
08-226 ###
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