FORMER IMMIGRATION OFFICIAL AND SISTER PLEAD GUILTY TO PARTICIPATING IN MASSIVE IMMIGRATION FRAUD SCHEME

MICHAEL J. GARCIA, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that PHILIP BROWNE, 41, a former District Adjudication Officer with United States Citizenship and Immigration Services ("CIS"), and his sister, BEVERLY MOZER-BROWNE, 50, pleaded guilty today in Manhattan federal court to participating in an immigration fraud scheme that netted the conspirators more than one million dollars. According to the Indictment, other documents filed in this case, and evidence offered at the trial of a co-defendant convicted last month:

BEVERLY MOZER-BROWNE owned and operated Help Preparers Professional Services ("HPPS"), a Queens business that purported to offer its customers assistance in a variety of financial and legal matters. In fact, the primary business at HPPS was fraudulently procuring permanent resident documents, or "green cards," from CIS, formerly known as the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service ("INS"), in exchange for fees ranging from $8,000 to $16,000 per customer.

To execute this scheme, MOZER-BROWNE and various coconspirators arranged sham marriages between HPPS’s customers and American citizens. The American citizens were paid for their participation in the sham marriages. Once the purported marriages were documented, MOZER-BROWNE and her co-conspirators at HPPS would file green card applications with CIS on behalf of HPPS’s customers.

During the period of the conspiracy, PHILLIP BROWNE -- BEVERLY MOZER-BROWNE’s brother -- worked as a District Adjudication Officer for CIS at 26 Federal Plaza in New York, New York. BROWNE’s responsibilities included interviewing green card applicants and approving green card applications. One of the purposes of the immigration interviews that BROWNE was  responsible for conducting was to identify and deny applications that were predicated on sham marriages. BROWNE assisted MOZERBROWNE in the scheme by corruptly approving applications submitted by HPPS’s customers without requiring those applicants to appear for their scheduled interviews.

From approximately April 2001 through November 2005, BROWNE, MOZER-BROWNE, and their co-conspirators fraudulently procured hundreds of green cards for HPPS’s customers, reaping fees totaling more than $1 million.

BROWNE and MOZER-BROWNE each face a maximum sentence of five years’ imprisonment and a maximum fine of the greater of $250,000, or twice the gross gain or gross loss from the offense. MOZER-BROWNE is expected to be sentenced by Judge McKenna on December 18, 2007, and BROWNE is expected to be sentenced by Judge McKenna on January 3, 2008.

In addition to BROWNE and MOZER-BROWNE, twenty-eight other defendants have been charged in this case. Of those twenty-eight defendants, twenty-six have pleaded guilty. One defendant, PETER ABSOLAM, was found guilty by a jury last month. Charges against one defendant, WENDY HARRISON, remain pending; HARRISON is a fugitive. As to that defendant, the charges in the Indictment are merely allegations and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Mr. GARCIA praised U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Office of the Inspector General, Department of Homeland Security, for their work in this investigation.

"Legal immigrants to this country should not have to fear that illegal actions by corrupt government employees may have placed a false application ahead of their own," said Mr. GARCIA.

This case is being prosecuted by the Public Corruption Unit of the United States Attorney’s Office. Assistant United States Attorneys MICHAEL A. LEVY and CHRISTINE Y. WONG are in charge of the prosecution.

07-220