Immigration Practice Starts at Home

The Ohio Supreme Court imposed an indefinite suspension of an attorney who had emigrated from Ghana to the United States:

Within months of being admitted to the practice of law in Ohio, [the attorney] began to engage in a years-long series of fraudulent acts against the United States government for personal gain. Moreover, [she] attempted to defraud the United States Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Service while she herself was running an immigration law practice.

The attorney had married another law student from Ghana while attending law school in Ohio. That marriage was dissolved in Ghana and the attorney remarried. The situation led to criminal charges, a plea of guilty and departure back to her country of origin.

The court had earlier rejected a proposed consent suspension of two years. (Mike Frisch)