A supposed immigration law firm swindled millions of dollars from mostly Portuguese-speaking migrants desperately seeking to remain in the U.S., Orange County Sheriff John Mina announced Wednesday, as he announced the arrests of four people central to the scheme.
“Our partners at Homeland Security say that they believe this might be the biggest immigration fraud case they’ve ever seen,” Mina said.
The founder of Legacy Imigra, Vagner Soares De Almeida, 53, his wife Juliana Colucci, 43, and associates Ronaldo De Campos, 34, and Lucas Trindade Silva, 34, were charged with organized fraud, racketeering, extortion and other charges as part of the alleged scheme.
Legacy Imigra, which advertises legal services mainly to Brazilians living in Florida and throughout the U.S., amassed an estimated $20 million over the last three years, Mina told reporters, as it defrauded migrants pursuing asylum claims or otherwise seeking to rectify their immigration status.
“Some of them have saved money, all of their life savings, and now have been defrauded out of that money and extorted and exploited,” Mina said.
Based out of an address on Kingspointe Parkway in Orlando, the scheme further included the creation of fake emails on behalf of unwitting clients, who were later threatened with having their documents withheld until they paid more money. It’s believed the seven victims who cooperated with the investigation lost between $2,500 to $26,000 in payments to Legacy Imigra.
“The victims told our agents that once they were financially committed and began making payments, Legacy Imigra escalated its control,” Mina said.
It wasn’t until an actual attorney reported the alleged scam that detectives, with help from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Florida Attorney General’s Office, began looking into the firm. Now, Soares De Almeida, Colucci and Trindade Silva are currently held in the Orange County Jail on immigration detainers themselves while De Campos is booked on a $211,000 bond.
In addition to the four alleged ringleaders of the scam, 10 other people were taken into custody, according to the Brazilian Times, a U.S.-based Portuguese-language weekly newspaper that reported the arrests ahead of Mina’s press conference. Mina said those people, unnamed but shown being escorted in handcuffs on video released by OCSO, were living illegally in the U.S. and turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Affidavits filed in Orange County court that could have offered more information on Legacy Imigra’s practices were sealed.
The affected migrants appear to now be eligible for what’s known as a U-visa, a nonimmigrant status that protects victims of certain crimes from deportation while offering a pathway to permanent residency in exchange for cooperating with law enforcement.
The allegations against Legacy Imigra appear to have been percolating for years before the arrests. The Better Business Bureau fielded several complaints dating back to 2024 referencing poor communication, conflicting information and migrants paying thousands of dollars despite their cases languishing without having been filed.
“I paid $2,500 for their services, which were done incorrectly,” stated one complaint from Nov. 19, accusing the company of misleading them about their case involving an asylum claim. “I am now incurring additional costs paying a licensed attorney to correct their mistake. Legacy Imigra refuses to fix the error, will not refund my money, and is illegally holding my work permit unless I pay an additional $500.”
While a maintenance message now appears on Legacy Imigra’s website, the embattled firm appears to have several social media accounts out of Orlando, Tampa, New York City and elsewhere, with one account announcing the company’s supposed expansion into Miami. In addition to Florida, Mina said the victims that came forward are from South Carolina, Connecticut and New Jersey, “and we believe there are many more.”