An immigration attorney in the United States has been sentenced to five years in prison after helping thousands of people immigrate fraudulently, netting millions of dollars in fees. 
The attorney, Earl Seth David, of New York, had been living in Canada since 2006 but was extradited to the United States last year. According to prosecutors, he was charging his clients up to $30,000 in exchange for creating fraudulent documents and tax returns to create fake employer sponsorships, many of which for employers that didn’t even exist.
Approximately 25,000 immigration applications have been identified as being submitted by the attorney’s firm, which hired people to pose as employers sponsoring immigrants to the United States.
Immigration fraud continues in Canada
Prosecutors also said that he was continuing to offer his fraudulent services from Canada after he fled there in 2006.
While the attorney was sentenced to jail, there are 25,000 people who should be very concerned about their immigration statuses as the government has been looking into these immigration applications, most of which it has determined has false or fraudulent information.
Immigrating fraudulently is never a good idea. While the legitimate immigration process can take longer, immigration fraud will only put your status and future in the country you have immigrated to in jeopardy – it may take some time, but it will catch up to you.
President & CEO
Michael Niren
Mr. Niren is CEO of VisaPlace LLC and the President and Managing Partner of VisaPlace Legal Canada, an immigration law firm based in Toronto, and VisaPlace Legal US a law firm registered in The District of Columbia, USA. Mr. Niren is a graduate of Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada, the Canadian Bar Association’s Citizenship and Immigration Section, American Lawyers Association, and an Associate Member of the American Bar Association.
