Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Alderman's Father Found Guilty of Supply ID Fraud To Illegal Aliens

A sad day when one is given the gift of citizenship and goes for the money and the illegal activity portion. I wonder how much of the money went into his son's campaign?

And who can forget that when the raid took place, Mexican activists took to the streets in protest??????

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Elias Munoz, father of Chicago Ald. Ricardo Munoz, was sentenced today to four years in prison for his role in a fake ID ring.

U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer called his role as a photographer in a Little Village fake ID ring "pretty significant."

During a two-hour hearing, government attorneys linked Munoz's pictures to other ID scams in Chicago.

"He took those photos knowing or just recklessly disregarding that they would obtain, by those photos, illegal documentation," Pallmeyer said.

Munoz, 63, who owned a photo studio inside a Little Village outdoor mall where the international ring was based, pleaded guilty last year to charges of criminal conspiracy.

After an additional two years probation, Munoz, a legal Mexican immigrant, is likely to be deported, Pallemeyer said.

Federal prosecutors estimated Munoz earned $180,000 a year through the illegal photos. They also revealed IRS reports showing Munoz failed to report his income from 2001 through 2006, avoiding taxes for those years.

"He was up to his eyeballs in this for years and years and years," argued Assistant U. S. Attorney Andrew Porter.

Munoz, frustrated by the portrayal, fumed to reporters during a hearing recess that he was being treated unfairly.

In a statement to Pallemeyer, he wept openly, pleading for forgiveness, before being allowed to leave the federal courthouse and report to prison voluntarily in the next few weeks.

"If I did something wrong, I'm sorry. Forgive me," Munoz said in a mixture of English and Spanish. He claimed he ran a legitimate business.

The photo studio, Nuevo Munoz Foto, shut down shortly after federal agents broke up the fake ID ring during an April, 2007 raid.

The ring's leaders are being tried for murder for allegedly ordering that a competitor be shot to death in Mexico.


--Antonio Olivo

1 comment:

Cletus said...

Another reason why we need to rid this country of all illegal aliens.
They bring nothing to this country, they only take away from it.
Ask yourself, is it really a smart idea to give amnesty to 12-20 million illiterates when this country is broke and fighting with massive unemployment? Yea, this country would truly join the ranks of thirdworld nations if amnesty was ever given.