00:00A federal grand jury has indicted Wagner Suarez de Alameda, his wife, Juliana Colucci, and 11 others, co-conspirators for
00:08their role in a wide-ranging fraud scheme that include mail and wire fraud, as well as marriage fraud.
00:13They posed themselves as a full-service immigration law firm, falsely claiming to have qualified attorneys who could seek immigration
00:22benefits for aliens to remain in the United States.
00:25They had no lawyers to accomplish that task.
00:28Many of these individuals that were involved with this were trying to do this the right way.
00:32They were trying to go through the immigration process the right way by hiring a lawyer and getting the services
00:38and filing the documents.
00:39At the center of this entire conspiracy is Wagner Suarez de Alameda and his wife, Ms. Colucci.
00:47If convicted, Wagner Suarez de Alameda and his co-conspirators are facing up to 20 years imprisonment for the immigration
00:53fraud and five years on the marriage fraud.
00:56How did this all begin? Well, I think we're going to bring the person before you now, but give us
01:00some idea of how it all began.
01:01And that is Sheriff John Miner of the Orange County Sheriff's Office.
01:04We are very pleased to know that the investigation into the criminals associated with Legacy Immigrant has continued.
01:11When the investigation began, our detectives worked in conjunction, along with Homeland Security, to dismantle this criminal enterprise, which has
01:20amassed millions of dollars by exploiting victims and their fear of removal from the United States.
01:26We have recovered nearly $1.7 million, belonging to approximately 200 victims.
01:32Those funds are still going through our forfeiture process, but it is our goal to return that money to the
01:39victims as soon as we are able to do so and come up with a system for that.
01:43While we have identified hundreds of victims, we know that there may be more out there.
01:48So if you're hearing this, please contact us and we will continue to investigate this organization.
