25857: Hermantin(News)Boss held in migrant scam (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Thu, Jul. 28, 2005

Miami Herald



LAUDERDALE LAKES


Boss held in migrant scam

Federal agents seized the leader of a Lauderdale Lakes agency that they say 
defrauded undocumented immigrants.

BY DARRAN SIMON AND ALFONSO CHARDY

dsimon@herald.com


Federal agents arrested the head of a Haitian community organization Wednesday 
on charges that the agency made millions by filing fraudulent immigration 
papers for undocumented immigrants.

Gomez Accime was taken into custody as he drove to the Lauderdale Lakes office 
of Haitian-American Community Help Organization of South Florida -- called 
HACHO.

Accime, the group's executive director, was indicted last week, according to 
Mark Briesemeister, assistant special agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and 
Customs Enforcement. Accime faces charges including mail fraud and conspiracy 
to commit mail fraud. He is scheduled to appear in court today..

The organization made more than $3 million from the service, according to ICE 
officials.

HACHO workers filed more than 10,000 applications for work permits, known 
officially as Employment Authorization Documents or EADs, and charged $450 
apiece, according to ICE.

Most the applications were fraudulent and denied.

Had the immigrants themselves filed the applications with the U.S. Citizenship 
and Immigration Services, they would have been charged $175.

HACHO listed the applicants as refugees, and the government waives the fee for 
such applications.

''Virtually all of that [money] went to HACHO,'' Briesemeister said.

The evidence was taken to a grand jury as a result of the investigation that 
began last fall.

ICE agents searched the HACHO offices Wednesday in a strip mall at 4693 N. 
State Road 7 in Lauderdale Lakes, Briesemeister said.

Sixteen immigrants found there, who had traveled from the New York area, were 
taken into custody, Briesemeister said. The case is the first time federal 
authorities have publicly acknowledged that HACHO has been under federal 
investigation for the alleged fraud. Hints of an investigation arose earlier 
when New York authorities contacted South Florida law enforcement officials 
about the group.

Last fall, two New York agencies -- the Office of Citizenship Services in New 
York Gov. George Pataki's office and New York State Consumer Protection Board 
-- disclosed that they had opened probes into HACHO after receiving complaints 
about excessive fees to file applications for work permits and other documents.

Officials also said immigrants claimed the group promised to make their 
immigration status legal.

About 20 illegal immigrants living in New York complained to the Office of 
Citizenship Services, saying they each paid $450 to HACHO for work permits, but 
received nothing.

Last October, New York officials said immigrants claimed to have traveled to 
Florida in the belief an amnesty for illegals was imminent and that HACHO could 
further their chances of getting legalization.

Hundreds of immigrants from around the country were arriving daily at the HACHO 
office based on rumors that they could get special services, according to ICE 
investigators.

Al Bonnie, the HACHO president and founder, told The Herald last year his 
organization had done nothing wrong and that it did not promise amnesty or 
special immigration assistance.

Bonnie said HACHO has helped people get food, money, driver licenses and green 
cards.

Public records show the group was incorporated in 1998. ''We don't do anything 
illegal, and if somebody is complaining we didn't serve them right, we will 
take care of it, put them on top of the list,'' he said at the time.

An ICE investigator said it was ''bedlam'' outside the HACHO offices at one 
point. The investigator added: ``The crowds were immense and the police had to 
be called.''