2 Charged With Paying $200,000 in Bribes to INS

A federal grand jury on Tuesday indicted a Santa Ana man and his partner on charges that they paid nearly $200,000 to bribe a U.S. Immigration and Naturalization official for phony work permits for illegal immigrants.

“This case represents the largest bribe of any Justice Department official that has been prosecuted to date by the United States attorney’s office,” said acting U.S. Atty. Terre A. Bowers.

A nine-count indictment charges Jose Luis Terrones, 30, of Santa Ana and Mohammad Aleem, 31, of Los Angeles with paying a woman posing as an INS official to fraudulently prepare work permits for about 100 undocumented immigrants, most from Pakistan, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Carol L. Gillam, who is prosecuting the case.

Terrones’ and Aleem’s clients probably would not have qualified for work permits under the current amnesty program because most are believed to be illegal immigrants who recently came to the United States, INS officials said.

Terrones and Aleem met with an INS official in Santa Ana and a government agent posing as a Legalization Office employee several times between Dec. 17, 1991, and last March 25, when the two men were arrested, the indictment states.

Terrones agreed to pay $2,000 for each phony permit processed, the indictment states.

“These things are worth a lot of money. . . . There is a huge class of people who are so desperate,” Gillam said. “This is a key step for most aliens. Most breathe a sigh of relief because (the work permit) allows them to work.”

The case began when Terrones approached Evangelina Belmonte, a supervisory legalization adjudicator with the INS office in Santa Ana, whom he met through his work as an immigration consultant.

If convicted on all counts, Terrones and Aleem face prison time, and fines amounting to $2.25 million.

Aleem was being held without bail in the Los Angeles Metropolitan Detention Center. Terrones was free on $15,000 bond. Both are scheduled to be arraigned Monday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, Gillam said.