CA: Sherman Oaks lawyers sentenced in visa fraud case

Los Angeles Times ^ | 3/12/08 | Daniela Perdomo

[kiriath_jearim]

Two local immigration attorneys were sentenced Monday for filing false employment visa applications for foreign nationals, including more than a dozen who worked at their San Fernando Valley law firm.

Daniel E. Korenberg, 58, of Encino, a founder and senior partner at ASK Law Group in Sherman Oaks, was sentenced to 24 months in federal prison and three years' probation, including six months in home detention with electronic monitoring, authorities said. Korenberg, who had pleaded guilty to two counts of visa fraud and one count of conspiracy, was also fined $750,000.

[DPMD]

Just guessing that they weren’t, and won’t be, disbarred. The California Bar’s standards for disbarment are pretty low, involving mainly commingling clients’ funds, and that’s about it. Two years, and they’ll be right back at it.

Unless I’m mistaken. Anyone?

[Psycho_Bunny]

This isn’t a simple crime....it’s treason. Why aren’t they being hung?

[BurbankKarl]

A lot of this going on....

People just disappear after they caught with faking their I-9s....I have heard two of them in the past couple years. They go home for vacation, and get nailed coming back in by Customs at the airport.

[Nea Wood]

Hang the traitors.

[kcvl]

Employees of the law firm may have distributed up to 1,000 fraudulent visas, primarily between 2000 and 2003, investigators said.

The indictment details several cases in which the lawyers allegedly employed noncitizens as paralegals or legal assistants and then filed improper documents to obtain specialized visas for them � visas reserved for skilled workers, such as systems analysts, programmers and management consultants.

About 20 visa-seekers from countries including the Philippines, Indonesia, Syria and Egypt cooperated with the government as material witnesses and will have their legal status determined through immigration courts.

Four people associated with a pair of employment agencies, Job Seekers International and Employmasters International, have also pleaded guilty to charges related to the investigation.