It was a day of reckoning for a convicted former Bronx attorney who admitted guilt in a multi-million dollar immigration fraud, who was exposed by an I-Team investigation.
“He destroyed so many American dreams," said Ricardo Velasquez Jr., who gave a victim statement on behalf of his family on Wednesday.
It came as convicted and disbarred Bronx immigration attorney Kofi Anankwaa faced a federal judge at a sentencing hearing in lower Manhattan.
A former Bronx immigration attorney pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges following a series of I-Team reports that revealed an alleged scam targeting vulnerable families. NBC New York's Sarah Wallace reports.
The disgraced attorney had promised he would do the right thing to help thousands of immigrants become legal citizens. Instead he wronged them and raked in millions of dollars in the process, while leaving many in limbo.
In Sept. 2024, Anankwaa pleaded guilty to fraud after a lengthy I-Team investigation exposing a complicated scheme where he took in millions of dollars from immigrants trying to get legal status.
Longtime restaurant cook Ricardo Velazquez Sr. was deported to his native Mexico after he and his family, including four U.S. citizen children, returned to New York City from a trip south of the border to visit relatives. Amankwaa promised he could get legal status for the parents, encouraging them to travel and get a passport stamp on return that he claimed would expedite the process. He charged $3,000 per person.
"The plan was to sponsor them-he promised he would file the proper documents," said Velazquez Jr.
Amankwaa had filed fraudulent documents under a government program called VAWA, the Violence Against Women Act, which was designed to expedite green cards for victims of domestic violence. In thousands of cases, Anankwaa listed children or loved ones as abusers on paperwork — including Velasquez Jr.
“I was shocked when I found out,” he told the I-Team.
Anankwaa's VAWA filings made up 47% of all petitions nationwide.
A Bronx immigration attorney was charged in a widespread federal multimillion-dollar fraud scheme that separated immigrant families — and was first exposed in Spring 2023 by the I-Team's Sarah Wallace.
Immigration officials eventually allowed Velazquez Sr. to return to the U.S. and reunite his with family in New York, but thousands of Amankwaa’s victims remain in legal jeopardy.
He was sentenced to 70 months in prison, has agreed to forfeit more than $13 million and provide $16 million in restitution to victims. It’s not yet clear how the money will be distributed.
Anankwaa did not answer questions outside of federal court.
