An ex-ICE attorney in Seattle was sentenced Thursday to four years in prison for stealing the identities of several immigrants and opening up lines of credit in their names, KING-TV reported.
Raphael A. Sanchez, 44, the former chief counsel for U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement's Office of Principal Legal Advisor, had entered a plea of guilty in February for one count of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft in connection with the case, according to the Department of Justice, the television station noted.
Sanchez also was ordered to pay $190,345.63 in restitution in the case, according to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice.
"Raphael Sanchez was entrusted with overseeing the honest enforcement of our country's immigration laws," acting Assistant Attorney General Cronan said in the statement. "Instead, Sanchez abused that trust, and capitalized on his position at ICE to exploit his victims and line his own pockets."
In pleading guilty, Sanchez admitted to intentionally devising a scheme to defraud aliens in various stages of immigration removal proceedings with ICE and use their personally identifiable information to open lines of credit and personal loans in their names, manipulate their credit bureau files, transfer funds to himself, and purchase items for himself, the statement said.
"ICE employees are required to ensure honest enforcement of more than 400 laws," ICE principal legal advisor Tracy Short said in the Justice Department statement. "We cannot let one bad actor detract from the work the agency's dedicated employees in Seattle and across the world are doing to ensure our national security and uphold public safety.
"Our employees are held to the highest standards of professional conduct. Individuals who violate the public's trust will face consequences for their actions, as Mr. Sanchez did in this case. Corruption will not be tolerated," Short continued.
Authorities claimed that Sanchez had made charges or drew payments totaling more than $190,000 in the names of aliens to himself or entities that he controlled, often using PayPal and mobile point-of-sale devices from Amazon, Square, Venmo and Coin to process the fraudulent transactions, the statement said.
Sanchez had also claimed three aliens as relative dependents on his tax returns for 2014, 2015, and 2016, the Justice Department said.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.