U.S. Department of Justice
Executive Office for Immigration Review
Office of the Director
5107 Leesburg Pike, Suite 2400
Falls Church, Virginia 22041

Contact: Office of Public Affairs
(703)305-0289, Fax: (703) 605-0365

Internet: www.usdoj.gov/eoir

EOIR Suspends Seven More Immigration Practitioners

Disciplinary Actions Taken under Amended Rules of Professional Conduct

The Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) has formally suspended seven more attorneys from practicing before the Immigration Courts, the Board of Immigration Appeals (the Board), and the Immigration and Naturalization Service, after suspending five others in August. Their suspensions are disciplinary actions taken by EOIR under the recently amended Rules of Professional Conduct for Immigration Practitioners, provided in Title 8 of the Code of Federal Regulations (8 CFR Parts 3 and 292).

The Board of Immigration Appeals ordered immediate suspensions of the attorneys named below, for the reasons stated, after EOIR's Office of the General Counsel filed petitions for immediate suspension and Notices of Intent to Discipline on grounds of professional conduct rule violations arising out of sanctions imposed by other jurisdictions:

Charles H. Bowser, suspended by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals after pleading guilty in the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Virginia to a felony charge of executing a document containing false statements;

Alake Johnson-Ford, disbarred by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals;

Nicholas Grapsas, suspended for 6 months by the Supreme Court of Wisconsin;

David Smith Nunes, suspended for 3 years by the Supreme Court of Florida;

Sylvia Anita Ryan, suspended for 4 months by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals and suspended for 1 year by Second Judicial Department of the New York Supreme Court;

Paige Elizabeth Samsky, disbarred by the Supreme Court of the State of Georgia; and

Sheldon Irwin Walker, disbarred by the First Judicial Department of the New York Supreme Court following his conviction in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, of Conspiracy to Make False Statements and Commit Fraud, False Statements, and Mail Fraud.

The amended rules, which were published in the Federal Register on June 27, 2000, and which became effective on July 27, include provisions specifying grounds for disciplinary action, requirements for receiving and investigating complaints, and procedures for conducting hearings. The rule also authorizes the Board to immediately suspend a practitioner who has been subject to disbarment, suspension, or resignation with an admission of misconduct as imposed by a State or Federal court, pending a summary proceeding and final sanction.

In the matters cited above, the Board's orders direct the suspended attorneys "to promptly notify, in writing, any clients with cases currently pending before the Board, the Immigration Courts, or the Service that the respondent has been suspended from practicing before these bodies."

Each suspended attorney also received a Notice of Intent to Discipline directing him or her to respond within 30 days to the charges. In the response, each may state his or her defenses against the imposition of the recommended final discipline and seek a hearing.

EOIR announces these actions to inform the public of its ongoing efforts to prevent or correct misconduct and misrepresentation by immigration practitioners. EOIR also posts a list of suspended and expelled practitioners on its Web site at www.usdoj.gov/eoir.

- EOIR -