BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) - A New York couple has been sentenced to two years of probation and each fined $25,000 after being convicted in an immigration fraud scheme.
The office of the United States attorney for Vermont says 45-year-old Loreto Kudera and 43-year-old Hazel Kudera of New York City provided false and fraudulent information to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in St. Albans, Vermont. They were applying for visas for foreign nurses and profited from the scheme.
Hazel Kudera owns several medical staffing agencies in New York that provide nursing professionals to hospitals and other facilities.
Prosecutors say the Kuderas admitted they submitted 100 or more fraudulent petitions.
They were sentenced Tuesday. They had previously pleaded guilty and paid $1 million in illegal proceeds from the scheme.
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