A Bronx-based immigration lawyer who dedicated expansive fraud and stole $16 million from his shoppers was sentenced Wednesday to almost six years in jail.
Kofi Amankwaa, 70, was additionally ordered to pay the $16 million in restitution and $13 million in penalties, the Justice Division introduced in a press launch.
“People who immigrate to America are often vulnerable and simply trying to build better lives for themselves and their loved ones,” New York Lawyer Normal Letitia James stated when Amankwaa was first accused in January 2024. “When these immigrants sought help from attorneys claiming to act in their best interests, they were taken advantage of and harmed instead.”
Amankwaa, a resident of South River, N.J., charged hundreds of {dollars} per case at his Bronx-based agency. His scheme concerned profiting from the Violence Towards Ladies Act, which permits undocumented immigrants to use for inexperienced card standing in the event that they’re being abused.
In paperwork filed by Amankwaa, he claimed his shoppers had been being abused by their U.S. citizen kids, though he knew they weren’t or by no means even bothered to ask, federal investigators stated.
He then suggested shoppers to exit and reenter the U.S. to acquire a passport stamp and put them on the trail to authorized residency, in line with the feds. Nonetheless, the scheme ceaselessly failed, and plenty of immigrants had been deported.
Between 2017 and 2023, 97% of the VAWA petitions that Amankwaa filed had been withdrawn, deserted or denied, the Justice Division stated. A number of victims had been shocked to be taught of the abuse claims in Amankwaa’s paperwork.
“I was shocked when I found out,” Ricardo Velazquez Jr., who was falsely listed as an abuser, advised WNBC of his father’s case. “[Amankwaa] destroyed so many American dreams.”
