L.A. County charges 3 members of a family with scamming dozens of immigrants

Three members of the same family are accused of scamming dozens of immigrants by providing them illegal immigration services, resulting in most of them unknowingly facing deportation proceedings, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said this week.

Dist. Atty. George Gascón’s office said Oscar Mauricio Gil, 63, his sister, Judith Gil, 67, and her daughter, Minerva Gil, 39, have been charged with multiple counts of grand theft and conspiracy to commit a crime. Judith Gil is also facing an extortion charge, the office said.

“The immigrant community should not be preyed upon and swindled out of their money from unscrupulous scammers,” Gascón said in a news release Friday.

The Gils were scheduled to be arraigned Friday, but the hearing was postponed until Sept. 9, a spokesman for the district attorney’s office said.

The office alleges that between 2008 and June of this year, the Gils conspired to illegally provide immigration services through a business they ran from their home called FJA and Associates. They filed “invalid political asylum cases” that led to deportation proceedings for the majority of the victims, the office said. The trio collected $101,128 from 38 victims, according to the district attorney’s office.

The district attorney’s Notario Fraud Unit, Consumer Protection Division and the L.A. County Department of Consumer and Business Affairs continue to investigate the case. The county has set up a hotline — (213) 974-1452 — to report complaints.