Miami Resident Charged With Orchestrating an Immigration Fraud Scheme

A Miami-Dade woman is charged with stealing immigration application payments from her clients when she prepared at least 146 fraudulent petitions filed with United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Robert C. Hutchinson, Acting Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (ICE-HSI), Miami Field Office, made the announcement.

Josefa M. Siverio, 60, of Miami-Dade, is charged by indictment with five counts of mail fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1341; and three counts of conversion of postal money orders, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 500. 

As alleged in the indictment, Siverio is an immigration consulting and services provider who prepared immigration petitions and applications for aliens seeking immigration benefits from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.  Siverio is alleged to have prepared at least 146 fraudulent petitions and stolen checks and money orders entrusted to her to pay the fees associated with the petitions and applications for immigration benefits.  It is alleged that Siverio’s clients provided her with blank checks and money orders for the application fees and Siverio made the checks and money orders payable to herself and deposited the checks and money orders into her own personal bank accounts.

Mr. Ferrer commended the investigative efforts of ICE-HSI.  This case is being prosecuted by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Monica Beamer.

An indictment is merely an accusation and every defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida at www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.