The former Armenian Consul in Los Angeles and a Beverly Hills immigration attorney are among five people arrested last night and this morning on federal criminal charges that allege they obtained and sold to illegal aliens documents called “letters of refusal,” which allowed those illegal aliens to avoid deportation.

Issued by embassies and consulates, a letter of refusal states that a country will not issue a travel document for a particular individual, essentially blocking that person’s deportation to that nation. According to the criminal charges that led to this week’s arrests, the five defendants sold official letters of refusal from the Armenian consulate for as much as $35,000. Those letters prevented the removal of the Armenian nationals to Armenia. The investigation revealed that many of those who purchased the letters were Armenian nationals facing deportation after being convicted in the United States of felony offenses.
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