Fourteen Guyanese have been caught up in an immigration fraud scheme in the US that could see them ending up being deported.

News reports out of New York said that convicted bigamist Wilmer Rivera Melendez posed as a veteran immigration lawyer, scammed thousands of dollars from Guyanese immigrants and gave them advice so bad, they now face deportation. The man promised green cards but pursued avenues that would never yield them, changed his phone number to evade his “clients” when they started asking questions and even proposed to marry some in order that they get legal residency, prosecutors said.

Melendez, who has been imprisoned for bigamy, convicted of an office burglary and broke out of an Ohio jail in 1971, denied the allegations. The 60-year-old man set up a scheme that stretched from his home in Covington, Georgia to several states, prosecutors said.  Guyanese Derick Darnley, 37, a boat-maintenance worker said that Melendez “messed” him up. He had asked the man to get a valid visa extended and is facing potential deportation after spending about US$1,800. He said he had gone to the US in 2008 on a month-long work visa for a charter yacht job. It fell through so he sought to get the visa extended for another six months to find another job.

Melendez had promised to get green cards for at least 14 Guyanese immigrants in Brooklyn and they and others paid him at least US$75,000. Prosecutors said many of the immigrants were in the country illegally but authorities didn’t know until Melendez started filing paperwork for them.

Darnley, who is from Berbice, said that Melendez steered him into applying for asylum. “I thought I was doing the right thing because I don’t want to be here illegally,” he said. For some of his “clients”, Melendez proposed marriage to him to get their green card. None accepted.

He was being held on US$175,000 bail after pleading not guilty to charges including grand larceny, scheme to defraud and falsely appearing as an attorney. He was married to at least three women at once.