Tainted taxi queen hit in immig fraud
NEW YORK CITY’S embattled taxi queen — already facing charges involving millions in unpaid cab taxes — has been indicted on immigration fraud, officials said Wednesday.
The Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office says Queens immigration lawyer Andreea Dumitru submitted more than 180 asylum applications to immigration officials “in which she knowingly made false statements and representations about, among other things, the applicants’ criminal histories, personal narratives of alleged persecution, and/or locations.”
Dumitru signed off on these sketchy forms “as true and correct under penalty of perjury,” prosecutors alleged.
Dumitru, who is based in Sunnyside, has also worked as chief financial officer of Taxiclub Management Inc. — the cab company run by taxi king Evgeny Freidman.
Freidman and Dumitru were hit with a five-count indictment last June charging them with theft and failing to pay more than $5 million in MTA surcharges from 2012 to 2015.
Dumitru, 42, now also faces one count each of asylum fraud and making false statements, according to the feds. She could get up to 15 years in federal prison if convicted. She could not be reached for comment.