Judge Says Firm Schemed to Bilk Immigrant Workers : Fraud: Court plans to create restitution fund so those swindled can recover money they paid thinking they were getting documentation.

A Superior Court judge has ruled that a North County immigration consultant intentionally defrauded as many as 1,000 undocumented immigrants out of hundreds of dollars each in one of the largest scams of its kind.

Judge Charles Hayes said in an order issued Monday that fraud was an inherent part of the Del Mar-based American Law Assn. run by Susan Jeannette. Next week, he said, he will order that a restitution fund be set up for the people she swindled.

Last week, a jury ordered Jeannette, owner and operator of the American Law Assn., to pay $27,000 each to Martin and Pedro de Jesus Martinez.

The jury found that Jeannette had deceived the Martinezes by claiming to provide not only authorization to work in the United States but also protection from deportation.

Jeannette charged undocumented immigrants $300 each to register them in a federal work program, a service that actually requires the mailing of a postcard, and a $10 filing fee to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. Other organizations in North County offer the same service free.

Jeannette may have bilked as many as 1,000 people out of as much as $1,500 each, according to attorney Stephen Yunker of Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps, who tried the case at no cost.

Yunker asked that a $500,000 restitution fund be created and that those cheated by Jeannette be able to make their claim by bringing in documentation from the American Law Assn. The plaintiffs also hope that Jeannette will be held liable for the costs of advertising the restitution fund.

Joe Auerback, Jeannette’s attorney, called the figure of 1,000 immigrants “totally speculative,” and said a more accurate figure would be 14, the number of undocumented immigrants who testified during the eight-day trial that they had been swindled.

The swindle was one of the largest in the county, if not the state, against undocumented workers, said those familiar with the lawsuit, noting that the American Law Assn. is one of the biggest “immigration consultants” in San Diego.

“The customers that we produced as witnesses thought that they either had work permits or documents that entitled them to reside here,” said Claudia Smith of California Rural Legal Assistance, the agency that brought the lawsuit.

Jeannette used extensive advertisements in Spanish-language newspapers and official-looking documents, even fingerprinting and the notarization of signatures, to bilk her clients, Smith said.

“What we’re hoping is that this case will have a ripple affect. Hopefully, cases like this will disabuse people of the notion that undocumented workers will not complain and follow through,” Smith said.

“People who prey on them bank on the fact that they are not going to complain or pursue their complaints. In this case, not only did our two clients stick it out, but we were able to persuade other undocumented workers to come forward and testify,” Smith said.