An unlicensed New York City attorney who bilked scores of immigrants out of thousands of dollars through citizenship schemes — including the common “10-year green card” scam — was sentenced to up to three years in prison Wednesday.
Carlos Moreno, 61, collected more than $140,000 from his clients, including two who kept paying him thousands of dollars for months after he had been disbarred in 2017, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said.
In brief remarks during his sentencing in Manhattan Supreme Court, the crooked attorney apologized for practicing law without a license — but maintained he was an advocate for immigrants.
“I’ve devoted my life to assisting immigrants. And I believed that I was helping my clients,” he told Justice Maxwell Wiley.
Prosecutors said the hack lawyer took on more clients and gave legal advice to scores of immigrants after losing his license.
Starting even before he was disbarred, and continuing after he had lost his license, Moreno scammed undocumented immigrants by assuring them they would be able to stay in the US if they had lived here for 10 years or more, prosecutors said.
He would complete the ruse — known as the “10-year green card scam” — by filing bogus asylum applications on behalf of the clients, triggering removal proceedings, the DA’s Office said.
His attorney told Wiley that Moreno currently works as an adjunct lecturer teaching constitutional and criminal law at the Borough of Manhattan Community College — a gig “he actually enjoys very much.”
Moreno was sentenced to a minimum of one year and up to three years in state prison after being convicted of scheme to defraud and practicing law without a license.
“These New Yorkers sought legal services from Mr. Moreno in order to apply for permanent residency in the place they already call home. Instead, he took their fees and placed them in situations that put them at risk of deportation,” District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement after the sentencing.