Former Bronx attorney Kofi Amankwaa has been handed a 70-month prison sentence for engineering a large-scale immigration fraud. The sentence was announced by Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Matthew Podolsky, marking the end of a legal saga that saw Amankwaa exploiting the protections meant for noncitizen victims of domestic abuse under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). According to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office, the former attorney admitted to his wrongdoings on September 17, 2024, before being sentenced by U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla.
Having once pledged to serve his clients' legal needs, Amankwaa defrauded thousands of dollars from each of them, falsely claiming that they had been victims of abuse by family members. “Kofi Amankwaa, a former immigration attorney,made a mockery of the U.S. immigration system and VAWA — a law that provides noncitizen victims of domestic abuse a path to lawful permanent residence status — by filing thousands of immigration documents falsely alleging that his clients were victims of abuse by their children or other family members. Amankwaa repeatedly filed these false applications without telling his clients that he was doing so, and pocketed thousands of dollars from each client he victimized. Amankwaa now faces a significant prison sentence for his crimes,” said Podolsky. Over a period stretching from September 2016 through November 2023, misled by their trusted attorney, clients were instructed to sign documents and travel abroad, forming the basis of their applications for unlawful permanent residency, as noted by the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Amankwaa's scheme involved preparing and submitting fraudulent Form I-360 VAWA Petitions, under penalty of perjury, without verifying or informing clients about the nature of the abuse claims being made on their behalf. These actions set into motion requests for advance parole travel documents, which further cemented the path to these fraudulent applications for residency. Despite his efforts, many of his clients still faced denials due to the inherent fraud in their applications.
The financial toll of Amankwaa's operation was substantial. Charged between $3,000 and $6,000 for services that were often unsuccessful, his clients were left with denial letters rather than the promised residency status. Even after his license was suspended in November 2023, and despite being disbarred in August 2024, the repercussions of his actions linger for the victims involved. As part of his sentencing, Amankwaa, now 70 years old, will not only serve time but also has been ordered to forfeit $13,389,000 and pay $16,503,425 in restitution, as mentioned by the same press release.
For those affected or believing to be victims of Amankwaa's VAWA fraud, the U.S. Attorney's Office encourages contact via email at [email protected]. The investigative efforts leading to Amankwaa's sentencing were applauded by Podolsky, highlighting the work of the Newark Field Office of Homeland Security Investigations and the assistance of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services' Office of Fraud Detection and National Security. The case was managed by the Office’s General Crimes Unit with Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Z. Margulies at the helm.
