INS Employee Charged With Taking Bribes

Government investigators arrested a U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service examiner at work in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday on charges of collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in the so-called “Buddhist monk” scheme.

Dorothy Anaya, 39, an INS employee for 15 years, was arrested on charges contained in a 41-count secret grand jury indictment that also named her husband’s business partner, Alfred Lin, who was still being sought.

Assistant U.S. Atty. James Berliner estimated that Anaya, who lives with her husband, Robert, in a $500,000 Northridge home, received at least $700,000 for approving fraudulent applications for permanent residency for Chinese aliens from Taiwan. Robert Anaya was not indicted.

Claims in Documents

Documents, allegedly prepared by Lin, claimed permanent-resident status for aliens who supposedly had been ordained in the Buddhist clergy, had offers of employment in the United States and were therefore entitled to preferential treatment.

The indictment, returned Feb. 19 but sealed until Tuesday, charged that Lin met with Taiwan residents who were in the United States under temporary visas and offered to help them become permanent residents for a fee of up to $40,000.

Then, according to the government, Dorothy Anaya would perform “illegitimate, perfunctory and incomplete interviews” of the fraudulent applicants and approve them for permanent-resident status.

The government claims that a conspiracy involving Dorothy Anaya, Lin and others continued at least through August, 1982. A long-term probe was conducted by the INS Office of Professional Responsibility from its San Diego headquarters.

At a hearing only hours after her arrest, U.S. Magistrate James J. Penne set bail of $100,000 and ordered her arraigned Monday on the charges.

In seeking a higher bail, Berliner argued that Dorothy Anaya and her husband had acquired $1.7 million in property, consisting mostly of homes and rentals, within a single year.