LAW ENFORCEMENT LOOKING FOR SAN JOSE CONSULTANT CHARGED WITH IMMIGRATION FRAUD

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Photo Credit: Pixabay
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Noel Tagle Gutierrez.
Photo Credit: Santa Clara County Office of the District Attorney

A San Jose film director working as an immigration consultant has been charged with grand theft, accused of defrauding clients out of more than $44,000. Law enforcement is asking for the public’s help in locating the defendant.

Noel Tagle Gutierrez, 52, the owner of GEO Immigration Consultants, took money from 17 victims to perform immigration services he never provided. Gutierrez has been charged with thirteen felonies and three misdemeanors. He is facing incarceration, if convicted. “Immigration consultancy is vital, important work, with families, jobs, even lives at stake,” prosecutor Garner Morris said. “It needs to be done right, legally and ethically.”

One local victim, who had also been both the victim of domestic violence and robbery, contacted Gutierrez to get a U-Visa – a special visa for crime victims – to stay in the United States. To do so, she paid Gutierrez $4,285. Gutierrez told her he had sent in the application and she would hear from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in three months. That was in 2015.

The victim never heard from USCIS. She stopped hearing from Gutierrez after repeated calls. Her unfiled application was found by investigators in the defendant’s office. Immigration consultants are required to have a $100,000 bond; provide a written contract which shall include all the services to be performed; the costs of the services to be performed; and advisement of the fact that the immigration consultant is not an attorney and may not perform legal services.

Gutierrez, the director of “El Segundo Genesis,” “La Secta,” and “El Síndrome de Adán,” had done none of these things. If you are a victim of immigration service fraud or know of Gutierrez’s whereabouts, please call the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office Notario Fraud Unit at 408-808-4599 or email Tips@Sheriff.sccgov.org.

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