Two fraudsters from BiH and the USA destroyed the American dream of 36 families from Bosnia and Herzegovina, from whom they took 140,000 dollars for a promise to help them get an accelerated visa to immigrate to the USA, and in the end they were left with nothing with sold-off property and counterfeit American documents.
For months, a woman from Visoko and her partner from Florida have been stalking victims from BiH in the USA through Facebook ads, even a recorded video in which, falsely presenting themselves as employees of the American Embassy in Sarajevo, they offered the possibility of easily obtaining an American visa, he announced. Center for Investigative Journalism (CIN).
For their “services” they charged $5,000 each for mediation in arranging interviews at the American embassy in Sarajevo to obtain an immigrant visa.
Grateful for the opportunity and hoping for a new beginning, 36 families signed cooperation contracts with the ‘intermediaries’, convinced that the US embassy was behind them.
They issued forged documents to clients, and they had no contact with the US embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Members of 14 families with whom CIN journalists spoke say that cooperation with these women brought them disappointment and shame.
“We were cheated, we were cheated,” says Džemal Filan, who is unsuccessfully trying to return the money he paid to bring his cousin to the promised land.
Žepčanka moved to Jacksonville, Florida in 2017. In addition to working in a factory, since 2018 she founded an administrative service for translation and assistance to elderly fellow citizens who were not well versed in the American administrative system. In the spring of this year, she connected with a young lawyer from Visoko. Then they arranged a business with the issuance of fake visas for the USA.
The American Embassy in Sarajevo explained that there is no intermediary for the issuance of immigrant visas, but that everyone can determine online how to apply and can only apply in person.
“We do not work with any external party, that is, an intermediary agent,” said Consul Martin Thomen. He explained that applicants do not pay in advance for visa issuance.
After learning about the reports, the employees of the American embassy reported the fraud to the authorities in BiH and the USA in the middle of the year.
The Zenica-based prosecutor’s office heard Ajša Ramić in August for fraud.
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