Andreea Dumitru’s law firm on Skillman Avenue. (Google Maps)
Nov. 20, 2018 By Nathaly Pesantez
An immigration attorney based in Sunnyside was found guilty on Monday of operating a large, years-long asylum fraud scheme, and will now serve time in prison for her crimes.
Andreea Dumitru Parcalaboiu, who ran the Attorney at Law office near 49th Street and Skillman Avenue, was convicted of making false statements to immigration authorities, identity theft and fraud in a scam that lasted from 2013 to 2017. She was charged with immigration fraud back in March.
“Andreea Dumitru, an immigration attorney, scammed the asylum program, which was designed to provide safe harbor for the world’s most vulnerable people,” said Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman in a statement.
Andreea Dumitru (New York State Office of the Attorney General)
Dumitru, 43, was found to have submitted hundreds of fraudulent documents in connection to applications for asylum. In the applications, she knowingly made false statements and misrepresented personal narratives of applicants, writing details of alleged persecution, criminal histories, mistreatment and more.
Apart from making up narratives for her clients to be granted asylum, she forged their signatures and falsely notarized affadavits.
While Dumitru has been found guilty of a total of three counts relating to the asylum scam, she has yet to have her prison sentence laid out. Her asylum fraud conviction carries a maximum sentence of 10 years, while her false statement crime carries a maximum sentence of five years.
A mandatory consecutive sentence of two years in prison, additionally, is in store for her aggravated identity theft offense.
The guilty verdict comes months after another legal fiasco Dumitru was tangled in. She pleaded guilty in May to helping Evgeny Freidman, known as the “Taxi King”, commit massive tax fraud while he ran his fleet of 800 cabs under Taxiclub Management Inc.
She agreed to pay $25,000 in criminal restitution as part of her plea, and to cooperate with ongoing investigations by the state Attorney General’s office relating to Friedman’s taxi business.
