Immigration atty involved in visa fraud

NORFOLK, Va. - Federal and local authorities announced Friday that 30-year-old Beth Ann Broyles of Evanston, Illinois, pleaded guilty in Norfolk federal court to conspiracy involving visa fraud and inducing aliens to come to the United States illegally.

The immigration attorney’s plea was accepted by United States District Judge Mark S. Davis Thursday afternoon.

According to court documents, Beth Ann Broyles, an immigration attorney based in Chicago, served as immigration counsel for the Viktar Krus organization in Virginia Beach.

Krus was recently sentenced to 87 months imprisonment after being convicted on conspiracy, visa fraud and tax evasion charges. As Krus' lawyer, Broyles prepared successive fraudulent immigration petitions which she submitted to the Department of Labor and thereafter to the Department of Homeland Security.

Once approved by these agencies, these fraudulent petitions allowed Krus' organization to recruit for and bring approximately 1,000 alien workers into the United States illegally on H2B visas, where they were allowed to work for periods of up to nine months. The majority of these aliens were from eastern European countries and from Jamaica. As a result of having access to this large pool of illegal workers, the Krus organization was able to generate over $35 million in gross income from 2003 to 2009.

After years of investigation, the U.S. Attorney approved a dedicated task force in August 2007 with the mission of dismantling the Krus criminal organization. The task force investigating this case included ICE, the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, the US Department of Labor, the FBI’s Norfolk Field Office, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, and the Virginia Beach Police Department.

Broyles is scheduled to be sentenced December 14th. She faces a maximum penalty of five years of imprisonment, a fine of $250,000, full restitution, a special assessment, and three years of supervised release.