Immigration attorney falsifies some 100 asylum applications, so federal prosecutors charge her with asylum fraud. They also—because it is the specific policy of the Department of Justice to stack as many charges as possible—separately charge her with lying to the government and with identity theft, even though she did not, in any normal sense, steal anyone’s identity. Second Circuit: Convictions and five year sentence affirmed. Concurrence: "Atty. Andreea Dumitru prepared and submitted false asylum applications for a large number of her clients. For that unlawful conduct the Government charged her with violating three different statutes. The three-count indictment was lawful. The question remains: Was it fair?
The case is United States v. Dumitru, 19-1486-cr (2d Cir. Mar. 22, 2021).