Non-Witness Protection Program
An attorney who recently pled guilty to federal charges has been suspended on an interim basis in Michigan.
The Birmingham Patch recently reported
A Birmingham attorney and a Homeland Security special agent have been indicted in a scheme to allow illegal immigrants to remain in the country by falsely claiming to be informants with tips on various crimes in exchange for cash.
An indictment unsealed Thursday charges Charles Busse, 58, formerly the Warren City Council president, and Clifton Divers, 48, of Detroit, with bribery, conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government and obstruction of justice, according to the Daily Tribune.
Divers, a special agent with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement-Homeland Security Investigations, was arraigned Thursday in U.S. District Court, while Busse is expected to be formally charged today.
Busse, who practices out of a Rochester Hills office, also has an office in Dearborn. According to charging documents, Busse and Divers operated a scam from 2009 to 2015 that netted the pair tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees to gain deportation deferrals to allow the illegal immigrants to stay in the United States.
A deferral is a discretionary measure to postpone the removal of an illegal immigrant who actively assists in a law enforcement investigation. The deferrals are typically for one year.
Court documents state Busse worked with Divers to grant deferrals by making up information on criminal activities for use as evidence of cooperation with federal law enforcement officials.
“As part of that conspiracy, Charles T. Busse fabricated information on alleged criminal activities for use as staged cooperations with federal law enforcement agencies when, in fact, the clients had no personal knowledge of the alleged criminal activities,” the indictment states.
Court records show Divers would allegedly provide false information to Homeland Security investigators to fraudulently receive deportation deferrals for Busse.
The indictment illustrates how the case progressed.
The FBI alleges Busse received a $15,000 payment from an Albanian national who was about to be deported. Busse then contacted Divers on behalf of the Albanian man. Several months later, Divers sent an email to Homeland Security falsely saying the Albanian man was assisting in an official investigation.
As a result, the Albanian man’s deportation was deferred, the indictment states.
Another case in the indictment shows Busse received $6,000 from two Iraqi nationals who were about to be deported. Using the same scheme, Divers claimed the Iraqi men were able to provide information on a criminal organization in manufacturing phony identification documents.
(Mike Frisch)