Do Say Gay

An immigration fraud conviction has drawn disbarment by the New York Appellate Division for the Second Judicial Department

In this case, the respondent was charged with advising clients to falsely claim that they were persecuted in their home countries for their sexual orientation, knowing that such persecution did not take place. The respondent was also personally charged with instructing clients to provide false evidence in furtherance of their false asylum applications. Specifically, the respondent instructed her clients to claim that they were a gay male or a lesbian female when the respondent knew that they were not. She then instructed her clients to obtain a membership card from a particular lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender organization to include in their asylum applications. She further instructed one client to find a same sex associate to pose as the client’s love interest, have the fake love interest sign a false affidavit that the respondent’s law firm would prepare, and the respondent would include the false affidavit in the client’s asylum application. The respondent allocuted that,

“During the period of 2016 to 2020, I, along with others, did agree to submit the 539 application and the client’s affidavit. I knew that some of the affidavits contained false facts. We submitted this affidavit in order for the clients to receive an asylum status in the United States. These documents were filed under the oath, and I knew that they contained material false information.”

Substantial similarity analysis

We conclude that the criminal conduct underlying the respondent’s conviction of conspiracy to commit immigration fraud, in violation of 18 USC §§ 371 and 1546(a), is essentially similar to the New York felony of offering a false instrument for filing under Penal Law § 175.35, and, thus, constitutes a felony within the meaning of Judiciary Law § 90(4)(e) (see Matter of Jacobs, 124 AD3d 144). The respondent did not merely agree to commit immigration fraud; she admitted to actually submitting applications with false affidavits. As such, upon her conviction of conspiracy to commit immigration fraud, in violation of 18 USC §§ 371 and 1546(a), the respondent was automatically disbarred and ceased to be an attorney pursuant to Judiciary Law § 90(4)(a).

(Mike Frisch)