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Case vs woman in alleged USCIS fee scam dismissed
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Posted on Oct 05 2011
By Ferdie de la Torre
Reporter
Reporter
U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona yesterday granted the U.S. government’s motion to dismiss the criminal complaint against a woman who was arrested in August on charges of mail fraud.
Manglona dismissed the case against Maria Nina Dolot Castro without prejudice. Dismissal without prejudice will allow the prosecution to re-file a new case on the same claim in the future.
Assistant U.S. Attorney James Benedetto said that the prosecution had determined that there are additional victims that need to be identified before the case is prosecuted and additional investigation needs to be conducted.
In addition, Benedetto said, he has been informed that Castro will be charged in the Superior Court with related crimes.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security had looked into complaints of several persons that their applications and fees for federal immigration benefits were not being filed by a law firm with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service.
As part of the investigation, ICE agents arrested Castro on charges of mail fraud.
Manglona released Castro on a $5,000 unsecured bond.
ICE special agent Clayton T. Statler stated in his affidavit that the Homeland Security Investigations resident agent in charge on Saipan received information from a number of individuals that their applications and fees for federal immigration benefits were not being filed with the USCIS.
The individuals, Statler said, claimed to have used the legal services of attorney Danilo T. Aguilar, who is residing in the CNMI.
Some of the individuals had reportedly complained that Castro, a then employee of Aguilar, was not filing their applications and that she was using the USCIS fees they gave with their applications for her personal use or to pay the fee for applications belonging to other people.
