A South Florida man was arrested for allegedly posing as a lawyer and filing false immigration forms that helped at least 3,000 illegal immigrants get driver licenses, federal authorities said Friday.
Levy Garcia-Crespo, 34, was charged with impersonating an attorney in the alleged scheme that ran out of his West Palm Beach office, a federal criminal complaint said.
In the complaint, Garcia-Crespo was accused of assuming the identity of Gerald Thomas Salerno, who is actually an attorney with an office in the same complex.
A telephone message left at Salerno's office seeking comment wasn't immediately returned.
Garcia-Crespo attended hearings in federal Immigration Court and represented himself as Salerno, making it through entire court proceedings with prosecutors unaware, the complaint read.
A federal agent investigating the case witnessed Garcia-Crespo in court a half dozen times over the past year, the criminal complaint said.
Garcia-Crespo filed paperwork for thousands of illegal immigrants and helped them attain driver licenses, prosecutors said in court.
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Garcia-Crespo could face five years in prison if convicted. It wasn't immediately known if he had an attorney.
He was in jail on Friday. A detention hearing is scheduled for June 1 in West Palm Beach.
