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Comments on Current Events In Criminal Law
January 21, 2008
IMMIGRATION LAWYER AND TWO OTHERS CHARGED WITH ASYLUM FRAUD
(HOUSTON, Texas) – A indictment charging a Houston lawyer and two of her former employees with asylum fraud has been unsealed following the arrest of one of the former employees in Hong Kong, United States Attorney Don DeGabrielle announced today.
Houston lawyer Shelly Winn, 40, and two of her former employees, Elizabeth Jones, aka Elizabeth Tsai, 50, and Diane Feng, 49, were indicted by a Houston grand jury in a six-count sealed indictment in August 2007 and accused of submitting applications from Chinese aliens falsely claiming to be victims of religious persecution. Winn and Feng were arrested in November 2007 and ordered released on bond. Each is pending trial Feb. 4.
On Monday, Jan. 14, 2008, the indictment was unsealed following the arrest of Jones in Hong Kong, China, Jan. 10, 2008. Jones is pending extradition to the United States.
The indictment alleges that between April 1999 and February 2004, the defendants, while working at Shelly Winn and Associates, filed more than 70 asylum applications from Chinese aliens claiming they had been persecuted in China for practicing Christianity. Without obtaining information from the client, the law office allegedly provided the alien with a statement of supposed religious persecution or an asylum statement and asked the alien to rewrite it in his own handwriting. Jones and Feng are accused of providing the aliens with documents titled “Basic Facts About Christianity” so the aliens could learn about Christianity for their asylum interview.
Winn and Jones would then, according to the indictment, meet the aliens prior to the asylum interview and suggest false statements for the aliens to make during the asylum interview so the story would be more believable. The aliens were allegedly told they would be charged $6,000 for the asylum process but were then charged higher amounts and the immigration approval documents would be kept at the law office until the additional fees were paid.
Winn, Jones and Feng are charged with conspiring to commit immigration document fraud and to encourage aliens to reside in the United States knowing they were not lawfully entitled to be in the U.S. and with three substantive counts of immigration document fraud, including one count in which an application was allegedly submitted on behalf of an undercover government agent.
Upon conviction, the conspiracy charge carries a maximum prison term of five years, while each of the three Immigration document fraud counts carries a maximum prison term of 10 years. Winn and Jones are also charged with two counts of mail fraud, which carries a maximum punishment of 20 years, upon conviction. All six counts carry a fine of up to $250,000 and a term of supervised release of up to three years.
The case was investigated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the United States Postal Inspection Service and the Department of Labor Office of Inspector General and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Gregg Costa.
An indictment is a formal accusation of criminal conduct, not evidence. The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until convicted through due process of law.
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