By Daniel Massey
A Forest Hills lawyer was arrested last week and charged with filing hundreds of fraudulent immigrant visa lottery applications.
In a two-pronged scheme, Boris Krivonos, 44, allegedly first filed multiple applications on behalf of his clients to improve their chances of winning the Diversity Immigrant Visa Lottery, also known as the green card lottery, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District said. Then he submitted false documents for those who won to ensure they received their visas, according to a complaint filed in federal court.
Krivonos, who has a practice on Austin Street, is charged with conspiracy and mail fraud and faces up to 10 years in prison and $500,000 in fines if convicted, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
The complaint quotes Krivonos as saying he had clients in such places as Israel, Morocco, Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Sri Lanka. It was not known how many lived in Queens, which is a mecca for immigrants from around the world. All of the applications submitted by Krivonos listed his Forest Hills law office as the return address.
Krivonos had a website where green card seekers could fill in an on-line registration form for the lottery. He also encouraged potential applicants to fax or mail applications to his Austin Street office.
Under the scheme, prosecutors say the Forest Hills lawyer submitted between two and 27 applications per client, often using misspelled variations of an applicant’s name to avoid detection. The complaint alleges Krivonos filed at least 112 multiple lottery entries in 1999 and at least 331 multiple entries in 2000.
The U.S. State Department prohibits the filing of more than one entry per applicant.
Krivonos did not return telephone calls seeking comment.
Each year 90,000 winning entries are selected, but only 55,000 visas are distributed via the lottery. Launched in 1994, it is designed to diversify immigration into the United States by nationality, with as many as 182 countries receiving up to 3,850 visas each per year until the cap is reached. The State Department received 13 million applications for the 2001 sweepstakes, but 2 million were invalidated for various reasons.
But even those who beat the 120-to-1 odds and win the lottery do not automatically receive visas. Applicants must meet specific education or employment requirements and must not ever have lived illegally in the United States.
The complaint says Krivonos made arrangements for clients who won the lottery but were ineligible to obtain visas. He charged these clients $1,000 to create phony employment documentation and coached them on how to lie to U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service officials to conceal their status as illegal aliens, the complaint charges.
Authorities first became suspicious of Krivonos, who has a degree from Hofstra University Law School, when they noticed he had filed multiple entries for the same applicants during the 2001 lottery registration period in the fall of 1999. A special agent from the State Department examined the 112 entries received from Krivonos and found that he “attempted to camouflage the multiple entries filed on behalf of a single applicant by varying slightly the spelling of the applicant’s name,” the complaint says.
In July 2000, the State Department and INS began to investigate Krivonos’ practice.
Undercover agents posed as illegal aliens seeking entry into the lottery, according to the complaint filed by INS special agent Donna Roethal. In a tape-recorded conversation with Krivonos, the complaint says the lawyer told one witness that multiple entries provide “a better chance of winning.”
The complaint says Krivonos made this statement despite his web site’s acknowledgement that “the law allows only one entry by or for each person during each registration period; applicants who submit more than one entry will be disqualified.”
The complaint also alleges Krivonos coached the cooperating witnesses to lie to the INS during interviews. “You can’t tell them that you were in America, because otherwise you will be in trouble, a lot of trouble,” he allegedly told one witness.
He also warned the witness that speaking English in an interview with the INS would indicate the witness had previously lived in the United States illegally, according to Roethal. Krivonos is alleged to have told a cooperating witness, “don’t speak too much English at the interview. Because you will expose yourself and they’ll figure out if you might have been in the United States.”
Krivonos’ alleged scheme was working. From 1998 through 2002, he submitted 47 winning lottery entries on behalf of clients. The INS declined to comment on whether Krivonos’ arrest would affect the visa status of these winners, who may have benefited from fraudulent filings.
Reach Reporter Daniel Massey by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or at 718-229-0300, Ext. 156.
