Fraudster promised green card Seattle girl needed for college

A Texas man caught scamming dozens of undocumented immigrants with promises that he would deliver legal status was sentenced Friday to a three-year prison term in the long-running fraud.

Alejandro Gurany made hundreds of thousands of dollars offering false promises to immigrants desperate to obtain legal status in the United States. He put himself forward as an immigration official as he traveled the country, collecting down payments on immigration assistance he never delivered.

Gurany’s scheme was uncovered in 2016 after a tip from a detained immigrant. He was charged that year and pleaded guilty in September 2017 to wire fraud and impersonation of a federal officer.

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Born in Juarez, Mexico, Gurany owned and ran pharmacies there while living across the border in El Paso, Texas, where he has resided since 1995. He claimed to have been targeted by extortionists associated with a drug cartel, though prosecutors noted that no evidence of such extortion has been presented.

Investigators found that Gurany, now 50 and a U.S. citizen, cheated at least 30 people and stole $412,775 before his scheme was discovered. Gurany pretended to be an immigration official who could legitimately obtain green cards – permanent legal status for immigrant U.S. residents – for a fee, usually about $10,000. Rather than delivering legal status, Gurany collected down payments on the green cards and provided nothing in return.

In the spring of 2011, Gurany convinced one Seattle-area woman he could obtain green cards for her and her friends. He offered to fly to Seattle to meet with them if they wired him money.

During two meetings near Sea-Tac International Airport, Gurany took identifying information, photos and fingerprints from his would-be customers. He threatened them, telling them they would never get legal status if they didn’t work with him.

One couple paid Gurany $10,000 for green cards so their daughter would be able to apply for financial aid and attend college. A woman saved her restaurant earnings to buy a green card. Gurany failed to deliver for them, or dozens of other undocumented immigrants.

“He targeted vulnerable victims and tried to profit precisely from that vulnerability,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas Manheim said in court papers.

“They are not from the United States, do not speak English as their primary language, and are reluctant to seek help from law enforcement due to their own immigration status,” the prosecutor continued. “While that status may not entitle them to all of the rights enjoyed by people who have permission to be in the United States, it does not entitle others to defraud or otherwise commit crimes against them.”

In 2013, a tip from someone being held by immigration authorities prompted an investigation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Investigators discovered Gurany’s would-be clients had reported him to the Washington Practice of Law Board, an administrative agency tasked with investigating the unauthorized lawyering.

ICE investigators uncovered large deposits made into Gurany’s accounts from depositors in Washington, California, Colorado, Arizona, Wyoming, Oregon and New Mexico. Those wire deposits amounted to $412,775, though Gurany is believed to have taken cash payments as well.

Manheim noted that Gurany likely defrauded far more than the 30 people identified by investigators. If Gurany stole $5,000 from each of his victims, as investigators believe is likely, the wire deposits alone would require about 82 victims.

In a letter to U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik, Gurany claimed a drug cartel forced him to commit the long-running fraud. He nonetheless apologized for bilking struggling immigrants.

“I am a person that regrets the act that I had to make to these people,” Gurany said in the letter, according to a translation from Spanish. “I feel bad as I know how hard it is to gather money and even more to throw it instantaneously.”

Assistant Federal Public Defender Gregory Geist said in court papers that his client “was so desperate to keep his family safe that he lowered himself to swindling his countrymen and countrywomen out of their hard-earned money.”

Writing the court, Manheim said Gurany offered no evidence to support his extortion claim. The prosecutor noted Gurany stole far more than the $200,000 he claims cartel enforcers demanded of him.

Gurany was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik in Seattle. Gurany was ordered to pay $140,551 in restitution.

SeattlePI senior editor Levi Pulkkinen can be reached at 206-448-8348 or levipulkkinen@seattlepi.com. Follow Levi on Twitter at @levipulk. Find more from Levi here on his author page.