A 44-year-old Houston immigration attorney has been arrested and charged with mail fraud and making false statements after federal and local investigators say she took payments from clients seeking work visas and immigration status changes, then failed to file their paperwork while feeding them fake case numbers to keep them in the dark.
Alla Nowowiejski made her initial court appearance Wednesday afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Richard Bennett in Houston, according to the Department of Justice, which assigned Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Carter to prosecute the case. As Click2Houston first reported, prosecutors allege Nowowiejski accepted payments from clients who came to her promising to handle their work visa applications and immigration status adjustments, then submitted only portions of the required paperwork, or none at all.
Fake Case Numbers, Real Money
According to the indictment, Nowowiejski gave clients case reference numbers that actually belonged to unrelated, active immigration files, along with fraudulent documents designed to make it look like their applications were moving forward. The station's report notes that these fabricated numbers and documents led clients to believe their cases were being processed when, prosecutors allege, the work had never been done.
The U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General, the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Office of Inspector General all participated in the investigation, per the same account. If convicted, Nowowiejski faces up to 20 years in federal prison and a maximum fine of $250,000.
More Than 100 Alleged Victims, Local Detectives Say
The case did not start at the federal level. Detectives with Harris County Constable Precinct 1 determined that more than 100 people were victimized in the alleged scheme, according to HTX Media, having initiated the investigation before federal inspectors general joined in filing charges. Constable Alan Rosen publicly urged any additional victims to contact his office at 713-755-5200, regardless of their immigration status.
The case is being prosecuted under the Department of Justice's Fraud Division and the President's Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, per the Department of Justice. Harris County Constable Precinct 1 also noted that Nowowiejski has already been suspended from practicing law, and under federal regulations governing practice before immigration courts as well as state bar disciplinary standards, attorneys indicted or convicted of felony fraud face mandatory suspension and disbarment proceedings.
A Once-Rising Star of Houston Immigration Law
Nowowiejski was admitted to the State Bar of Texas on November 6, 2009, after earning her Juris Doctor from Texas Southern University's Thurgood Marshall School of Law that May, according to State Bar of Texas records, which indicate no public disciplinary history prior to the federal indictment. She practiced at Houston firm Monty & Ramirez from 2012 to 2016 and later served as a shareholder at Lugenbuhl, Wheaton, Peck, Rankin & Hubbard through 2018, before opening her own Nowowiejski Law Firm PLLC at the end of that year, according to court filings reviewed via the District Clerk Harris County.
She had built a visible profile in Houston's legal community, landing on the Houston Business Journal's “40 Under 40” list in 2013 and earning Super Lawyers Texas “Rising Star” honors in business immigration law every year from 2017 through 2019, according to a mentor listing from the University of Houston C. T. Bauer College of Business. Her solo practice catered to foreign businesses, investors, start-ups, and corporate workforces seeking business visas, operating out of The Warrant Building in downtown Houston with legal services offered in Russian and Spanish alongside English.
A Warning Sign From 2023
The federal charges are not the first time Nowowiejski's handling of immigration cases has been challenged in court. In December 2023, Houston-based Audubon Engineering Operations and five international employees sued her in Harris County District Court, alleging breach of fiduciary duty and deceptive practices for failing to process employee visa applications while falsely claiming the work had been completed, according to the same District Clerk Harris County filing. Audubon sought between $250,000 and $1,000,000 in damages after attempting to transfer its employees' cases to another law firm.
Federal mail fraud charges under 18 U.S.C. § 1341 carry a statutory maximum of up to 20 years in federal prison and fines up to $250,000 per count, the Department of Justice states, while making false statements to federal agencies such as USCIS or DHS under 18 U.S.C. § 1001 carries up to five years in prison per count. The scale of the alleged scheme, and the reliance noncitizen workers placed on Nowowiejski's professional standing, underscores why investigators say the case has drawn together local constables and multiple federal inspectors general in a single sprawling probe.
