Damien Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that ILONA DZHAMGAROVA and ARTHUR ARKADIAN were sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Viskocil for their roles in an immigration fraud conspiracy. DZHAMGAROVA, the head of the scheme and an immigration lawyer, received two years in prison, and ARKADYAN, also a lawyer, received six months in prison.
U.S. Attorney Damien Williams said: “From her law office in Brighton Beach, Dzhamgarova, aided by Arcadian and others, concocted offensive lies to defraud our country’s asylum process. The asylum system is designed to help some of the world’s most vulnerable people – those who have a well-founded fear of imprisonment, attack, torture or death because of their religion, nationality, ethnicity, political views, gender or sexual orientation. When lawyers cynically exploit these fears and line their pockets by preparing and filing false documents and coaching clients to lie under oath, they abuse their voted trust and undermine the asylum system.
According to the indictment, other documents in the case and testimony given in open court:
Between November 2018 and December 2021, ILONA ZHAMGAROVA, an immigration attorney, led the Dzhamgarova Firm, an immigration services firm based in Brooklyn, New York. Dzhamgarova’s firm works with clients — mostly foreigners from Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States — seeking visas, asylum, citizenship and other forms of legal status in the United States. Among other things, Dzhamgarova advises some of its clients on how they are most likely to obtain asylum in this country, fully understanding that these clients do not meet the legal requirements for asylum. The firm also prepared and submitted to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) clients’ fraudulent asylum applications, Form I-589, asylum affidavits—statements of the asylum seeker’s personal history and grounds for claiming asylum, often including allegations of past persecution—and the associated supporting documentation. Members and associates of the firm also coached certain clients to lie under oath during interviews conducted by USCIS asylum officers and provided legal representation to their clients during various immigration proceedings.
Among other things, JAMGAROVA advises her clients to seek asylum by falsely claiming to be members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community who have suffered persecution in their home countries, when JAMGAROVA fully understands that these customers are not members of this community community and has not suffered such persecution. In addition, DZHAMGAROVA and her husband, ARTHUR ARKADIAN, also an attorney, prepared and submitted fraudulent asylum applications and client affidavits to USCIS, under penalty of perjury, fully knowing that these documents sometimes contained material falsehoods. DZHAMGAROVA, ARKADIAN and others, including co-defendant Igor Reznik, also coached certain clients to lie during asylum interviews conducted by USCIS asylum officers and represented those clients as they lied under oath during immigration proceedings.
Dzhamgarova’s firm also employs writers, including Reznik, who knowingly fabricate and prepare fraudulent asylum client affidavits so that they can be submitted as part of the clients’ asylum applications. These affidavits, which are intended to support the clients’ claims of stalking, convey narratives of the clients’ personal stories that are full of lies, including events and incidents of alleged stalking that were fabricated by Resnick and his co-conspirators.
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DZHAMGAROVA, 46, and ARKADIAN, 44, both of Brooklyn, New York, previously pleaded guilty on January 25, 2023 before Judge Viskocil to conspiracy to commit immigration fraud. As part of their sentences, DZHAMGAROVA was sentenced to two years of supervised release, ordered to forfeit $540,000 and ordered to pay a $15,000 fine, and ARCADIAN was sentenced to two years of supervised release, ordered to forfeit $1,500 and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine.
Resnick, 41, of New York, New York, who also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit immigration fraud, is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Viscocil on June 7, 2023.
Mr. Williams praised the outstanding investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Eurasian Organized Crime Task Force in New York, USCIS’s New York Asylum Office, and the Office of Fraud and National Security and Homeland Security Investigations. Mr Williams thanked US Customs and Border Protection for their assistance.
This case is being prosecuted by the Office’s Money Laundering and Transnational Criminal Enterprises Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys David R. Felton and Jonathan E. Rebold are prosecuting.