Sentence Imposed in Fraud Scheme

Beverly Mozer-Browne, 50, was sentenced to 30 months in prison for leading a multimillion-dollar immigration fraud scheme. Mozer-Browne and her brother, former immigration official Philip Browne, pleaded guilty on September 7, 2007 to participating in the scheme. The sentence was imposed by United States District Judge Lawrence McKenna in Manhattan federal court, who also ordered Mozer-Browne to forfeit $1 million and properties. According to documents filed in this case, and evidence at the trial of co-defendant Peter Absolam, convicted in August 2007: 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 United States Citizenship and Immigration Services ("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, for which the American citizens received payment. 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, Philip Browne worked as a District Adjudication Officer for CIS at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan. Browne's responsibilities included interviewing green card applicants and approving green card applications. One of the purposes of the immigration interviews for which Brown was responsible was to identify and deny applications that were predicated on sham marriages. Browne assisted Mozer-Browne 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. Philip Browne was sentenced in December 2007 to 30 months in prison. Twenty-eight other defendants, besides Browne and Mozer-Browne, have been charged in this case. Of those twenty-eight defendants, twenty-six have pleaded guilty. Peter Absolam was found guilty following a jury trial. Charges against one defendant, Wendy Harrison, remain pending. As to that defendant, the charges in the Indictment are merely allegations and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.