UPDATED: Despite insisting his agency had done nothing wrong after the United States Federal Law Enforcement raided his Sacramento based office in December, Dr Hilamani Hansen the owner of the Americans Helping America organisation has been charged Thursday in relation to a scam that promised U.S. citizenships in return for fees as high as $10,000..
Dr Hansen, 63, is of Tongan origin and he was arrested earlier today after a federal grand jury indicted him for offering adult adoptions as a pathway to citizenship for people who were in the country illegally, ABC news reported.
U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner who made the announcement was quoted by ABC as saying: “Taking advantage of the hopes and dreams of undocumented immigrants, who are poorly positioned to seek the protection of law enforcement, to extract fees based on false promises, is a particularly predatory and manipulative type of fraud”.
US authorities claimed “the operation took in at least $500,000 from at least 500 immigrants in California, Hawaii, New York, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin”.
Last month Hansen threatened church leaders and overstayers in the United States he will release their names to US Homeland Security if they would not attend a meeting scheduled for January 31.
On the day of the meeting news agencies were not allowed to join in and Hansen refused to answer questions.
Californian based Television KCRA report said they saw 16 vehicles coming in and out of the building that day.
Hansen claimed his company could get illegal immigrants their US citizenship if they paid him $5000 to $10,000 each.
He claimed his clients can get their citizenship if they could be adopted by US citizens.
He told KCRA thousands of undocumented immigrants benefitted from his company’s citizenship shceme.
In the United States an adult can be lawfully adopted by US citizens but no one could get US citizenship through that policy.
READ MORE:
Hilamani threatens to release names of overstayers as FBI investigating his company
FBI probes US-Tongan company involving alleged immigration scam, Tongan victims speak out
