NEW YORK — Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that Andreea Dumitru, a/k/a “Andreea Dumitru Parcalaboiu,” an immigration attorney based in Queens, New York, was sentenced to five years in prison in connection with her operation of a scheme to submit fraudulent asylum applications to United States immigration authorities. Dumitru was convicted on November 19, 2018, of asylum fraud, making false statements to immigration authorities, and aggravated identity theft following a two-week trial before U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, who imposed yesterday’s sentence.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said: “Using lies and forgery, Andreea Dumitru, an immigration attorney, cheated the nation’s asylum program. For her crimes, Dumitru will now spend five years in prison.”
According to the Superseding Indictment, other filings in Manhattan federal court, and the evidence presented at trial:
Between 2013 through 2017, Dumitru operated a scheme to submit fraudulent I-589 Forms in connection with applications for asylum. Specifically, Dumitru submitted more than 100 applications in which she knowingly made false statements and representations about, among other things, the applicants’ personal narratives of alleged persecution, criminal histories, and travel histories. Dumitru deliberately fabricated detailed personal stories of purported mistreatment of her clients, forged her clients’ signatures, and falsely notarized affidavits.
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In addition to the prison term, Dumitru, 43, of Queens, New York, was sentenced to one year of supervised release, and was ordered to forfeit $157,500.
Mr. Berman praised the outstanding investigative work of Homeland Security Investigations and United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, and thanked the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review for their assistance.
This case is being prosecuted by the Office’s General Crimes Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nicholas W. Chiuchiolo, Alison G. Moe, and Robert B. Sobelman are in charge of the prosecution.
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