A Bronx immigration lawyer and his son have been charged with theft by the U.S. Department of Justice and the New York Attorney General. They are accused of getting green cards for clients by making false claims of domestic abuse.
Amankwaa, the lawyer, and his son, Kofi Amankwaa, Jr., are accused of running a large-scale plan to cheat people out of immigration.
The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) looked into it and found that Amankwaa and the others lied on their clients’ requests by saying they were the parents of abusive U.S. citizens. This was done so they could apply for a green card. But some of their clients were sent back to their home countries, and others were not given green cards.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York also brought a criminal case against Amankwaa and Kofi Amankwaa, Jr. for the alleged fraud scheme and arrested them.
Attorney General James is asking for an order to stop Amankwaa and the defendants’ illegal actions right away and make them pay back the customers who were hurt and pay damages, as well as civil penalties to the state.
Althea Stevens, a member of the New York City Council, was upset about the situation and said, “It is truly shameful that someone who is supposed to help chooses to break up families for their own gain.”
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“Thank you to our Attorney General for making sure that our families get justice and that illegal things that keep happening in our communities stop.”
The suspects will be shown to a U.S. Magistrate Judge. This case is a reminder that fraud will not be accepted, and people who do it will have to deal with the results.