Immigration consultant Angelina Codina was given a 7-year jail sentence when she was convicted of fraud for scamming thousands of dollars from former clients. The court also ordered her to pay back the $30,000 she got from her former clients.
Immigration Fraud
Angelina Codina targeted folks in Canada who were trying to get their relatives in the country. The clients paid Codina thousands of dollars over a period of 3 years for her assistance in helping their relatives immigrate to Canada. It was soon uncovered that she was running a fraudulent immigration scheme and was defrauding multiple clients.
Convicted for Fraud
60 year old Angelina Codina from Toronto was found guilty of 5 offences under the November 2017 Federal Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. She?s due to serve another 5 years considering the time she already served in custody. She was also ordered to pay more than $30,000 to 4 former clients that she allegedly defrauded for money. She is planning to appeal the sentence given to her.
Angelina Codina was convicted of 1 count of misrepresenting facts on an immigration application and 4 counts of advising clients on immigration matters without proper authorization. The Crown stated that Codina acted as a fraudulent immigration consultant and willfully targeted 10 vulnerable individuals between September 2011 and January 2014, making false promises to said individuals that she?ll be able to get their relatives in Canada.
The Ontario Superior Court was asked by Crown prosecutor Lynda Trefler to fine Codina $100,000 and to sentence her to 11 years in prison aside from paying her victims $30,200 each as restitution. This in view of the maximum 3 years penalty for lying on an immigration application and 2 years maximum punishment for unlawfully advising people on immigration matters. Trefler also voiced out that Codina?s behaviour has impacted both immigration and society aside from her victims.
Timely Arrest
Codina was arrested 4 years ago in May 2014 by Canada Border Services Agency. She has represented herself during the trial despite having been disbarred in 2002 and insisted on her innocence for all counts filed against her. She has records for swindling people in the past.
Codina was convicted of fraud and falsification of documents for stealing $20,000 from Ontario?s legal aid plan in 1997. The Law Society of Upper Canada disbarred her in 2002. She also has records for conviction of grand larceny in 2000 for practicing law without a license in New York, USA and providing attorney services to 11 paying clients from 1996 to 1999 through fraudulent law firm Codina Partners International in NYC. She was released for this in November 2009 although her sentence was an aggregate term of 5 to 15 years imprisonment.
Codina maintains innocence about her immigration fraud charges and says she was only acting as a conduit between her clients and immigration lawyers, even after multiple cases filed against her in small claims court.
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