Lawyer accused of visa fraud bought cemetery plots

A Los Angeles attorney and two of his business associates have been arrested on charges of masterminding a visa fraud scheme that enabled them to purchase vacant cemetery plots worth more than hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Kelly Einstein Darwin Giles, a solo practitioner who previously worked for the East West Law Group in West Covina, Calif., was taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents at Los Angeles International Airport. ICE agents also served notice on a local mortuary to seize 30 vacant burial plots and 20 blank grave plaques. The case was the first of its kind in the Central District of California to involve the seizure of grave sites.

Also arrested were two of Giles’s business associates: Joseph Wai-man Wu, who was president of the East West Law Group and who works for Giles, and Wu’s wife, May Yin-man Wu.

All three were charged with visa fraud. A magistrate judge set bond at $250,000 for each of defendant.

“Attorneys are sworn to uphold the law, and those who instead manipulate the system through fraud deserve criminal prosecution,” said Acting U.S. Attorney George S. Cardona, in a prepared statement. “United States immigration laws are intended to provide benefits to individuals who meet specified criteria — not immigration attorneys and opportunists who manipulate the system for personal financial gain.”

According to law enforcement authorities, the accused set up about a dozen shell companies and filed nearly 140 fraudulent visa petitions. Many were for H-1B visas, which allow overseas professional workers such as accountants or information technology specialists to work in the United States. Neither the companies nor the jobs existed, according to law enforcement authorities.

The decade-long scheme netted at least $830,000 in proceeds, the government said.

Agents seized immigration applications, financial records and computer equipment from Giles’s law offices.

The defendants charged as much as $50,000 to file the petitions. According to an affidavit, the defendants told their clients, the foreigners named in the applications, to lie if questioned by authorities about the visa scheme. One client secretly recorded two meetings with Giles and Joseph Wu.

The defendants bought grave sites at Rose Hills Memorial Park and Mortuary in Whittier, Calif., as part of the scheme. According to law enforcement authorities, the value of cemetery plots has been appreciating at a rate of 10% each year.

The two-year investigation involved ICE, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of the Inspector General, and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ Fraud Detection and National Security Unit.

Giles, who was admitted to practice in California in 1989, has no prior record of discipline. His attorney, Michael Artan, a solo practitioner in Los Angeles, said: “The government has made a series of mistaken contentions that have resulted in a complete misinterpretation of his activities.” He said his client was expected to be arraigned on Nov. 2.

Attorneys for the Wu defendants did not return calls for comment.