In January, we wrote a post regarding the indictment of a fake US lawyer operating out of Illinois. Six months later, a new case of attorney fraud in Texas has come to our attention.
The Texas Attorney General’s Office recently claimed that a man by the name of Alejandro Lazcano has been charged for defrauding customers and engaging in activities that violate the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA). Apparently Lazcano offered professional services to clients as an immigration attorney, when in fact he is not a licensed attorney. He is also not accredited by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), an accreditation that is necessary to legally offer immigration consulting services.
Lazcano, under the auspices of Lazcano & Asociados, claimed to provide assistance with work and tourist visas for the USA, laser visas, and permanent resident applications. He advertised his services to the El Paso community through flyers, community board postings and craigslist ads.
Information regarding the success or failure of the cases he assisted with on behalf of his clients has not been released, but he does face fines of up to $20,000 for each DTPA violation. Background records on Lazcano also indicate that he was found guilty of attempted sexual assault in 2003, in Texas’ Travis County.
Word to the wise: it is probably not the best idea to rely on websites like Craigslist when searching for a qualified attorney. Always check qualifications. US Immigration law is a complicated field of law and you put your future at risk by hiring a fake attorney. Moreover, anyone who is crooked enough to misreprent themselves as an attorney is probably crooked enough to engage in other shady activities. The same advice certainly applies in Thailand and in El Paso and the rest of the USA : there are numerous con men out there hunting for the next “client” aka victim. As qualified US Immigration Attorneys in Thailand, we have had numerous clients who were the disgruntled former victims of con-men posing as lawyers. These people lost precious time with their loved ones due to obvious mistakes in their US visa filings made by fake “lawyers”.
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