Alejandro Gurany Sentenced for Immigrant Visa Fraud Scam

A 50-year-old El Paso, Texas man, ALEJANDRO GURANY, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to three years in federal prison and three years of supervised release for orchestrating a nationwide fraud scheme that swindled immigrants out of more than $400,000. Gurany falsely claimed he worked for a federal immigration agency and could secure legal status in exchange for cash — a lie that preyed on the desperation of vulnerable victims across multiple states.

Gurany collected thousands of dollars from immigrants in Washington, Ohio, Colorado, California, Arizona, Wyoming, Oregon, and New Mexico, funneling at least $412,775 through cash payments and bank deposits between December 2011 and March 2015. He traveled to SeaTac, Washington, where he met victims at an airport hotel, collecting personal identifying information — including photographs and fingerprints — under the guise of processing green cards and citizenship applications. None of the paperwork was legitimate, and no legal status was ever granted.

U.S. Attorney Annette L. Hayes condemned the scam as a predatory assault on human dignity. ‘This defendant preyed on vulnerable people, exploiting their fear of deportation to line his pockets with their hard-earned wages,’ Hayes said. ‘He stole not only their money, but their American dream of education and a better life for themselves and their children.’

Despite claiming under court questioning that Mexican cartels threatened him and his family, Judge Robert S. Lasnik rejected the argument as justification. ‘It was a very insidious and awful crime that Mr. Gurany committed. You cannot justify it by saying “I need to protect my family” and then preying on other families,’ Lasnik stated. Gurany was ordered to pay $140,550 in restitution to 30 identified victims — though investigators believe the true number is much higher, given the volume of untraceable cash transactions.

The investigation began in 2013 after a detainee tipped off the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office of Professional Responsibility (ICE OPR) that Gurany was posing as a government official. A financial probe followed, uncovering a web of deception that included fake forms, stolen identities, and fraudulent filings that compromised immigration system integrity. ICE’s Shawn Fallah warned that such fraud doesn’t just harm victims — it creates national security risks. ‘Unscrupulous immigration practitioners not only exploit the trust of their often-unwitting victims,’ Fallah said, ‘but by filing fraudulent immigration applications, they create security vulnerabilities and compromise the integrity of our legal immigration system.’

The case was investigated by ICE OPR and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas Manheim. Authorities urge anyone who may have paid Gurany for immigration services to come forward, even years later, as additional restitution may still be possible. For now, Gurany sits behind bars — but the scars he left on families chasing a sliver of stability in America won’t fade nearly as fast.