{"id":129253,"date":"2026-01-23T15:39:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T15:39:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/129253\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T15:39:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T15:39:06","slug":"miami-woman-accused-of-posing-as-immigration-attorney-officer-faces-new-fraud-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/129253\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami woman accused of posing as immigration attorney, officer faces new fraud charges"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\">MIAMI \u2014 A woman who was arrested late last year for allegedly posing as an immigration attorney \u2014 and, in other cases, as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.local10.com\/news\/local\/2025\/09\/04\/woman-accused-of-pretending-to-be-corrupt-immigration-officer-while-on-probation-for-fraud-in-miami-dade\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.local10.com\/news\/local\/2025\/09\/04\/woman-accused-of-pretending-to-be-corrupt-immigration-officer-while-on-probation-for-fraud-in-miami-dade\/\">corrupt immigration officer<\/a> \u2014 is now facing additional fraud-related charges, Miami police confirmed Friday. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Authorities said Maria de Lourdes Van-Caneghem, 50, was arrested on Sept. 3, 2025, following an investigation by the Miami Police Department\u2019s Financial Crimes Detail. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">They said new charges have been added in an unrelated incident, including organized scheme to defraud and third-degree grand theft.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">According to a press release from the Miami Police Department, the investigation began on July 25, 2025, when a victim reported being defrauded by a woman claiming to be an immigration attorney. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">They said that victim sought legal help after her husband was detained by immigration authorities and was referred by a relative to Van-Caneghem.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">In that case, police said Van-Caneghem requested $2,000 for immigration services but accepted $1,440, which the victim paid using two money orders.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">After repeated requests for proof of payment went unanswered, the victim conducted an online search and discovered Van-Caneghem\u2019s history of fraud-related arrests, according to her arrest report. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Detectives later confirmed through subpoenaed financial records and surveillance video that Van-Caneghem cashed the money orders. They said the victim positively identified Van-Caneghem in a photo lineup. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Local 10 News has previously reported that Van-Caneghem also pretended to be a corrupt immigration officer to defraud migrants in Miami-Dade County. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Court records show Van-Caneghem has also been charged in more than a dozen fraud cases in Miami-Dade County since 2019. She was sentenced to probation from Feb. 14, 2024, to Feb. 14, 2034, following a 2023 Hialeah Police Department case in which she was convicted of grand theft.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Records also show that in 2022, Van-Caneghem was accused of stealing about $119,000 from customers of Hello Cuba Travel, who paid for airline tickets that did not exist.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">As of Friday morning, Van-Caneghem was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, where her bond was listed as \u201cto be set.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">MPD officials are urging anyone who believes they may have been targeted by similar fraud schemes to call 911. <\/p>\n<p>\ud83c\udfe0 News From Your Neighborhood<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-article-body__copyright\">Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 A woman who was arrested late last year for allegedly posing as an immigration attorney \u2014&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129254,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":["post-129253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}