By Mary Beth Sheridan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 13, 2005
Federal agents arrested two lawyers and searched their downtown D.C. law firms yesterday, accusing them of preparing phony employment documents that allowed scores of people to immigrate to the United States, officials said.
Irwin Jay Fredman, 72, of Bethesda and Sergei Danilov, 44, of McLean were charged with committing immigration fraud over a four-year period that allowed at least 149 people to gain U.S. residency, according to an indictment unsealed yesterday in federal court in Baltimore.
Two legal assistants who worked with them also were charged in the alleged crime.
According to the indictment, the legal team filled out forms stating that the immigrants were being sponsored by businesses in Prince George's and Montgomery counties, including an employment agency, a construction company and a Pizza Boli's.
In fact, the owners of those businesses had no idea the documents were being filed, according to the indictment.
Most of the immigrants who benefited from the alleged fraud were from Pakistan, Turkey, Russia and the Philippines, according to Dean Boyd, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The lawyers charged them as much as $22,000 each.
"There are more -- potentially lots more" people who gained U.S. residency thanks to the alleged fraud, Boyd said.
Immigration agents raided Fredman's office at 2120 L St. NW yesterday, officials said. A worker there, who would not identify herself, declined to comment on the case when a reporter telephoned. There was no answer at Danilov's office at 900 19th St. NW, which also was raided.
Two of those charged were immigrants and could be deported if found guilty. They are Danilov, a Russian national, and legal assistant Elnur Veliev, 21, an Azerbaijani national living in Silver Spring, according to a statement from the immigration agency. Both are permanent residents. Fredman and the other legal assistant, Alp Canseven, 30, of the District, are U.S. citizens.
The charges involve a process in which American businesses can sponsor foreigners to immigrate. Under that process, an employer will typically certify that the immigrant is needed to fill a certain job because no U.S. residents are available. The certification process is handled by state labor agencies and then the federal Department of Labor.
Authorities in the D.C. area have cracked down recently on a number of lawyers thought to be abusing that system. Two years ago, a federal judge in Virginia sentenced an Arlington immigration lawyer, Samuel G. Kooritzky, to 10 years in prison for a fraud involving hundreds of immigrants.
Staff researcher Bobbye Pratt contributed to this report.