Accounting firm office manager jailed for participation in visa fraud scheme

Illuminada "Nida" Quenga, 52, the former office manager of an accounting firm in the Los Angeles area, has been convicted of visa fraud and sentenced to 18 months in a federal prison after participating in a scheme to issue 120 fraudulent visas to Filipino citizens attempting to immigrate to the United States.

Over a three-year period, Quenga worked with Dory Ocampo, 36, a recruiter from BRJ Professional Service, a Los Angeles employment agency, to provide the false visas. Quenga signed off on the visa petitions indicating the petitioners were to be hired at the accounting firm to fill specialty positions.

Owners of the accounting firm, Simpson and Simpson, located in the Koreatown area of Los Angeles, told federal investigators that no such positions existed, none of the petitioners was hired, and Quenga had no authority to petition for alien workers on the company's behalf.

The Filipino visa petitioners paid between $4,000 and $7,000 each for their fraudulent visas.

Ocampo has left the country and is believed to be in the Philippines, according to a report in the Imperial Valley News.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service is working to revoke the fraudulent visas and to deny any of the fraudulent visa petitions that have yet to be adjudicated.