February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Fifty-eight-year-old Owad stands accused of collecting thousands of dollars in fees from immigrants in the Irish and other European communities to process forms that she claimed would result in green cards. In fact, she allegedly processed fraudulent work authorization forms on their behalf, potentially exposing their illegal status to immigration authorities.
Spitzer’s office gave Owad until today, Wednesday, Dec. 7, to submit a full account of her client dealings. Court proceedings against her will begin on Feb. 1.
Allen Morganstern, the Garden City-based lawyer who is representing Owad did not give any details about the status of the defense case when contacted by the Echo.
“Because the case is pending, I’m not at liberty to comment,” Morganstern said.
One Irish-American man living in Rockland County paid Owad $1,200 dollars in 2001 to help him process a green card application for his wife, who is Slovakian. Last year, they received a letter from immigration saying her work authorization application had been denied.
“We stopped dealing with her last year, It makes me angry even talking about that woman,” said the man, who wished not to be named.
“We ended up filling out the applications ourselves and repaid for everything again and we have our interview in January. What bothers me is all that lying to us and all that wasted time. We wasted four years,” he said.
A spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office, Christine Pritchard, urged anyone who has not come forward to do so.
“It is vital that more individuals come forward in order to build a strong case. We believe that there are possibly hundreds of victims in this case,” she said.
“We’re seeking a court order to prevent Owad from doing any other business relating to immigration so she cannot defraud any more people and to see that people who have been defrauded get their money back. We can’t seek monetary restitution for individuals if they don’t come forward,” Pritchard added.
Manhattan-based Irish immigration attorney Jim O’Malley is offering free legal advice to immigrants who submitted a fraudulent work authorization forms as a result of dealing with Owad.
So far, he has received around 40 or 50 enquiries and is representing several people.
“I’m advising people on how best to extricate themselves from liability arising from these applications,” he said.
“We’re contacting Immigration saying the applicants were unaware that they were filing applications fraudulently, and that they were relying on bad advice from a so-called professional. We don’t know if we’ll get a response, but the important thing is to go on the record,” O’Malley said.
The lawyer thinks immigrants who were denied work authorization based on Owad’s fraudulent applications are more at risk of being denied green cards in the future than of being deported.
“If immigration wanted to bust people they could. It’s not in their interest,” he said.
“My concern is that the situation could have adverse consequences for later applications. God forbid next year if some kind of amnesty comes in and they’re precluded from getting a green card. Once their fingerprints go on file, the FBI has them forever,” O’Malley said.
Pritchard said anyone who comes forward to the Attorney General’s office could do so in confidence.
“These people are the victims. That’s how we’ll deal with them. That’s our interest in their case,” she said.
Individuals with complaints or information about Christine Owad can contact the attorney general’s office on (845) 485-3913. Jim O’Malley can be reached at (212) 619-8387.