Paul J. McNulty, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, announces the conviction of Samuel G. Kooritzky on charges of conspiracy, labor certification fraud, making false statements, immigration fraud, and money laundering. Mr. Kooritzky was convicted today after a week-long jury trial in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The Honorable Leonie M. Brinkema ordered Mr. Kooritzky detained and set sentencing for March 7, 2003.

Samuel G. Kooritzky, age 64 of Vienna, Virginia, is an attorney and the owner of the Capital Law Centers in Arlington, Virginia; Langley Park, Maryland; and Washington, D.C. He was charged with fifty-seven felony violations of federal law: one count of conspiracy, fifteen counts of labor certification fraud, twenty counts of making false statements, twenty counts of immigration fraud, and one count of money laundering. The jury convicted Mr. Kooritzky on all counts.

The charges against Mr. Kooritzky stemmed from his efforts to file fraudulent applications for alien employment certification with the United States Department of Labor on behalf of Northern Virginia businesses and local immigrants. These applications ostensibly sought to convince the Department of Labor that the businesses wanted to hire the immigrants because the businesses could not find U.S. workers willing to fill job openings. When approved, the applications allowed the immigrant involved to apply for a green card to live and work in the United States. In practice, however, none of the businesses listed in the applications had authorized the applications. Rather, the applications contained a false job offer and the forged signature of a manager of the business in question. Mr. Kooritzky presented the applications as legitimate to the immigrants who signed the applications and charged each immigrant between $7,000 and $25,000 per application.

Mr. Kooritzky's conviction is the fourth conviction to come from a year-long investigation into labor certification fraud conducted by the United States Department of Labor, the United States Department of State, the Internal Revenue Service, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and the Fairfax County Police Department. The other convictions involved three individuals who assisted Mr. Kooritzky to prepare the fraudulent applications: Ronald Bogardus, Inderjeet Kaur, and Carolina Trana. Mr. Bogardus was an employee of the Department of State; Ms. Kaur and Ms. Trana worked for Mr. Kooritzky.

In total, Mr. Kooritzky and his associates filed over 2,700 fraudulent applications with the Department of Labor and the Immigration and Naturalization Service in the space of eighteen months, making this case one of the largest labor certification frauds ever prosecuted.

According to Mr. McNulty, "This is an important victory in our effort to restore integrity to our immigration system. Those who provide work opportunities for immigrants in this country must follow the rules or face the consequences."