Eduardo Juarez, El Diario Columnist, Sued by Cuomo for Immigrant Rip-Off Scams By Roy Edroso
Eduardo Juarez, El Diario Columnist, Sued by Cuomo for Immigrant Rip-Off Scams
Edward
Juarez says the mission of his International
Immigrants Foundation is "to help immigrant families and children
achieve their aspirations for a better life in the United States." But New
York attorney general Andrew Cuomo says the mission of Edward Juarez (aka
Eduardo Juarez aka Edward Juarez-Paglioccio) was to defraud
immigrants "with false promises of citizenship" and charge them
exorbitant fees for it, for which Cuomo is suing him and two of his
companies.
Cuomo says immigrants were lured into Juarez' webs
by ads, and also by Juarez's own weekly column in El Diario, where he
served as an "immigration
columnist" -- until today, when El Diario announced
it was pulling his column ("We will cease publication of his
weekly column pending the resolution of the lawsuit and other legal
matters"). Juarez also announced his services on his "The Immigrant's
Voice" radio show Thursday
nights on Amor 93.1 FM, and his TV show on Azteca
America on Saturday nights.
The AG is suing Juarez, his Foundation, and
another Juarez outfit called International Professional Association, and seeks
to shut down the organizations and provide "restitution" to their
victims, some of whom have separately filed suit against Juarez and these
companies.
Cuomo says Juarez's immigrant
clients paid reasonable-sounding fees up front, but were later "charged at
least several thousand dollars more to have immigration papers prepared and
filed." Also, instead of useful immigration services, these immigrants
were issued "International Citizen Photo Identification Cards" and
told these would entitle them to legal help if they got in a jam, which
subsequent jams proved false. And, the complaintsays,
the organizations have no staff lawyers, and often use non-lawyers (including
Juarez himself) to give clients legal advice which is "often wrong as a
matter of law."
The complaint accuses Juarez and his non-profits
with "systemic self-dealing through transactions with for-profit
businesses in which he or his family holds a financial interest" -- which
reminds us of the recently-publicized results in Cuomo's Espada
investigation. Juarez allegedly "looted" the non-profits; though
the amount of his looting is not revealed, Juarez apparently has been living
large with a house in Jersey, a midtown apartment, a luxury car, etc
