Woman stole from hundreds of immigrants

Filed fraudulent asylum applications and plowed money into real estate

Her real estate portfolio was built on lies.

The 16 Palm Beach rental properties that Laura Luz Maria Torres purchased over the past decade were bought with over $2 million charged to mostly undocumented immigrants whom the 66-year-old woman promised to help, court documents show.

Instead, Torres, of Lake Worth Beach, filed fraudulent asylum applications on behalf of about 1,000 people, prosecutors say

And when the government gave some of them work permits, she stole their identities in order to file over $1.8 million in fake tax returns on their behalf.

Then she laundered the money through an immigration lawyer in California and into her Palm Beach real estate, according to criminal charges against her.

She also collected some $67,000 in food stamps using fake names and identities, court records show.

Torres pleaded guilty Monday in Palm Beach federal court to immigration fraud, laundering government money, and making false statements to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which runs the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps.

At her sentencing, scheduled for March 12, she faces up to 15 years in prison. Her attorney, Bruce Alan Zimet, did not respond to a request for comment.

This is how investigators say Torres — based out of a strip mall on U.S. 1 — used loopholes in immigration laws to scam immigrants and defraud the government.

Her scheme, according to court records, started as far back as 2012. That’s when she started telling immigrants looking for help with their papers that she could fix their problems — for a fee, which averaged between $2,500 and

$4,000.

Torres would take the immigrants’ money and make up f ake government programs. One was called “the law of 10 years.” Another was called “the family reunification program,” according to court records.

And then she would sign them up for asylum — often without telling them or considering whether they were qualified.

Asylum is a form of protection available to certain immigrants in the United States. In order to be granted asylum, a potential immigrant has to prove, among other things, that they have a credible fear for their life and safety should they return to their home country.

Torres made up fake narratives on the asylum applications and reused them over 50 times, according to court records. She also coached immigrants who made it to the interview stage on how to successfully lie to authorities.

If an asylum application is pending for over 150 days, applicants can get a work permit, called an employment authorization document. Federal officials identified approximately 1,000 immigrants for whom Torres filed work permits.

However, Torres wouldn’t list the immigrant’s home addresses on the application. She’d list addresses she controlled.

That allowed her to keep charging immigrants fees when their work permits expired. Court documents do not indicate how much she charged for a renewal, but they do say she charged anywhere between $1500 to $4500 for an initial work permit.

That also allowed her to file fraudulent tax returns on behalf of over 100 immigrants she purported to help.

During an interview with investigators, one man told authorities that fake returns had been filed in his name. The returns were addressed to Torres’ office in West Palm Beach, court records say.

That’s when authorities discovered the money laundering.

Torres was having the funds from the fraudulent returns deposited into the account of a person identified only as K.H. in court records. The individual is described as “an immigration attorney who resides in California.”

K.H. was getting a 10% cut to deposit the money and then transfer it back to Torres’ accounts. Authorities say Torres ultimately managed to get almost a million dollars from the IRS for the scheme.

Property records show she bought real estate ranging from small apartments to $400,000 houses, primarily single-family or multifamily rental units.

Federal officials say they will try to take back several or all of Torres’ properties as restitution for her theft of government funds. The properties, ranging in value from $40,000 to over $400,000, are all single family homes or investment rental properties, according to data from the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser’s Office.