FLORIDA – A Florida company that helps immigrants has admitted to fraud and identity theft.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida (USAO) said that 65-year-old Mario Henry Garcia of Miami pleaded guilty to one count of fraud and misuse of visas, permits, and other papers, as well as one count of aggravated identity theft.
The USAO says that Garcia ran a business called Mar Financial, through which he helped people with their taxes, divorces, and immigration. The USAO said that Garcia would help clients prepare visa applications (form I-485) so that they could become legal permanent residents.
Affidavit of Financial Support (form I-864) from a financial backer stating that they would pay for the applicant’s living expenses while they were in the United States.
When a client of Garcia’s didn’t have a financial sponsor, he allegedly stole a sponsor’s personal information and supporting papers from a previous application, without the sponsor’s knowledge or permission, and gave them to the client for a fee.
Garcia was freed after paying a fee.
On February 1, 2023, he didn’t show up to his court date. Garcia is said to have run away and left the country using a Peruvian passport.
Garcia was taken into custody in Panama after he flew there from Costa Rica. He was brought back to the U.S.
Judge Cecilia Altonaga of the U.S. District Court has set June 14 as the date for Garcia’s sentencing sessions.
The guilty plea was revealed by U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe for the Southern District of Florida and acting Special Agent in Charge Michael E. Buckley, HSI, Miami.
The case was looked into by HSI Miami. The case is being tried by Assistant U.S. Attorney Hayden P. O’Byrne.
