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Press Release

Former Garland Independent School District Executive Director of Human Resources Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Falsify Immigration Documents

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Texas

DALLAS — Victor Leos, 63, of Garland, Texas, appeared in federal court this morning before U.S. Magistrate Judge David L. Horan and pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit false statements in connection with immigration documents, announced U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas.

Leos faces a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing is set for August 28, 2017.

According to plea documents, Leos was employed by Garland Independent School District (GISD), located in Garland, Texas from 1998 to 2013. Leos was responsible for recruiting teachers from Mexico, Central and South America, and the Philippines to fill open teaching positions at GISD. From around 2007 to around 2012, Leos engaged in a criminal conspiracy with outside recruiters to recruit and hire foreign teachers that GISD did not necessarily need. Leos benefited by receiving kickbacks in the form of inflated fees to teach orientation classes, travel, and other forms of remuneration. After the foreign teachers were employed at GISD on H-1B temporary visas, Leos knew they were unlikely to qualify for Form 9089s (Applications for Permanent Employment Certification). To further the conspiracy, Leos knowingly signed and filed falsified Form 9089s with the Department of Labor (DOL) to sponsor the teachers for employment-based permanent resident applications.

 

Specifically, from August 27, 2012 to December 6, 2012, Leos signed and filed for GISD thirty-eight Form 9089s in which he knowingly made false statements. In each Form 9089, Leos certified that all U.S. workers who applied for the job opening were rejected for lawful job­-related reasons when Leos knew this was not the case. To support these false statements, Leos created recruitment reports which contained additional false statements regarding the number of U.S. applicants for the open positions and the reasons for the rejection of the U.S. applicants. Leos had these recruitment reports submitted to DOL to support the falsified Form 9089s that were also submitted.

 

This was a joint investigation involving U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Department of Labor-Office of the Inspector General, the Department of Education-Office of the Inspector General, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Russell Fusco is in charge of the prosecution, which was assisted by Assistant U.S. Attorney John Kull.

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Contact

Lisa Slimak
214-659-8600
Lisa.Slimak@usdoj.gov

Updated May 23, 2017

Topics
Financial Fraud
Immigration