Queens Attorney Indicted for Alleged Misstatements on 180 Asylum Applications
Andreea Dumitru has been charged with one count of asylum fraud and one count of making false statements, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.
March 28, 2018 at 02:00 PM
2 minute read
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Photo Credit: Photo: Rick Kopstein/ALM.
A Queens-based immigration attorney has been charged with fraud for allegedly submitting more than 180 asylum applications containing false information about the asylum seekers' personal narratives and criminal histories.
Andreea Dumitru, 42, of Andreea Dumitru & Associates in Sunnyside, Queens, has been charged with one count of asylum fraud and one count of making false statements, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.
Dumitru faces a maximum sentence of up to 10 years on the asylum count and five years on the false statements count, the release states.
According to her indictment, from 2012 to 2017, Dumitru allegedly ran a scheme in which she made misstatements about the persecution that asylum seekers faced in their countries of origin and also forged some asylum seekers' signatures.
The indictment is Dumitru's second recent brush with the law.
Last year, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced a five-count tax fraud indictment against Dumitru and Evgeny Freidman, known as New York City's “Taxi King” for running a fleet of more than 800 cabs, alleging that they pocketed $5 million in 50-cent surcharges earmarked for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
The fraud case against Dimitru, who served as chief financial officer for Taxicab Management, is scheduled to go to trial in June, a spokeswoman for Schneiderman's office said.
Dumitru, a Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law graduate, was admitted to practice in 2010.
Dumitru's latest charges come at a time of heightened anxiety for immigrant communities in New York City and across the country, with President Donald Trump maintaining a hard-line stance on limiting immigration into the U.S. and stepped-up activity by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Since Trump's inauguration last year, organizations and government agencies in the city that provide services to immigrants say fewer immigrants are stepping forward to report fraud.
For instance, the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office told WNYC in January that it received 210 reports of immigration scams in 2017, down from almost 400 in the previous year.
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