Just when you think things can’t get any worse with the sleazy, unethical behavior of the shadiest of Vietnamese migration agencies, they do. After years of semi-literate online marketing – and I’m talking about their Vietnamese language content — these crooks are now brazenly simply copying original content from expert immigration firms like LatourLaw and other reputable firms in Vietnam and posting on their sites as their own information. Moreover, in their perpetual game of deception, they are even SLIGHTLY TWISTING the words of the material they are stealing in order to trick prospective investors into their offices.
I can name names, but there is no point; just pick any of our recent Vietnamese- language blogs from www.avseb5.com or www.latourlaw.com, copy, and paste into Google. You’ll find these crooks immediately. None have qualified US or Vietnamese lawyers on their team, none have any form of even basic legal understanding of the programs they offer, and all are out for one thing: to trick and steal as much money as possible from trusting Vietnamese investors. Here are just a few of the recent things we’ve seen in the past few months out of our Saigon office:
AGENT RIPOFF PROFILE: CBI PASSPORT PROGRAMS
Manipulation of actual investor figures for Grenada’s CBI Investor Program: massive online and text-driven ads promise family passports for a fraction of the actual family migration investment cost. As soon as a prospect comes in, they are told that the Grenada program is “too expensive” – it is the ONLY one which makes ANY sense for Vietnamese investors, as I’ve explained so many times in the past — and IMMEDIATELY the agent tries to push Dominica’s far inferior CBI program on the prospect.
AGENT RIPOFF PROFILE: EB-5
After charging a ton of money to a desperate (and failing) U.S. EB-5 project, the resulting prospects trickle in after the U.S. project owners have left Vietnam. Prospects are summarily told to fund IMMEDIATELY under a variety of lies (e.g., “spaces are running out”, “the price goes up tomorrow”, etc.) Without even a cursory review of the source of funds which MUST be proven to the USCIS, the investors scramble to get the money together immediately, usually handing much or all of it in cash to the migration agent, along with an “expedited” surcharge which raises the administrative fee from the average $50,000 to as much as $200,000 (!). Next, after a few weeks, the agent calls back the prospect with the unfortunate news that the US attorney (who, in the vast majority of cases, has never even SEEN or HEARD of the investor) did not accept the source of funds but DON’T WORRY…”You will get your full EB-5 investment back”. The agent then returns the $500,000 in full…EXCEPT, they keep the $100,000-$200,000 “expedite fee”, which they NOW tell the investor is “non-refundable” [Monica and I have PERSONALLY met with at least 3 families who have been defrauded exactly like this]
AGENT RIPOFF PROFILE: EB-3
Perhaps the single saddest Vietnam migration agent scam is the continuing false promises associated with the EB-3 unskilled worker program. For the past three years we have been warning clients that while the EB-3 visa category is indeed “real”, the offerings marketed across the board in Vietnam by disreputable migration agents are absolutely fraudulent. We’ve lost count of the number of hardworking Vietnamese people who have lost U.S. $30,000, $50,000 or even more on what are totally lost cause applications designed only to enrich the criminal migration agents pushing them. The fraud is so endemic that, to the best of our knowledge, the U.S. Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh has stopped entertaining E-3 unskilled worker applications. But spend a minute online and you’ll see the profiteering and theft continues.
Again: I can name names, but I don’t need to: everyone knows who you are. Everyone knows that you can’t tell a CBI from an EB-5 from a fake driver license. They know you are NOT lawyers, just business criminals who have mastered online marketing. They laugh at your efforts of making ridiculous “celebrities” via your misleading and totally dishonest social media content.
Today’s Vietnamese investors didn’t get rich by being stupid, and THAT’S why leading and respected law firms like LatourLaw have eroded your market share dramatically and will continue to do so. We look forward to the day when your thievery, fraud, and criminal conduct catches the eye of the Vietnamese authorities and they finally shut you down so you can stop stealing peoples’ money.
In the meantime, go ahead and keep copying the intelligent migration contact of true expert firms and thanks for the promo; people know you are too ignorant to have written it anyway.
Attorney José E. Latour
