Kofi Amankwaa’s Immigration Fraud Scheme and Sentencing

Kofi Amankwaa, a Bronx immigration attorney, ran one of the largest immigration fraud schemes ever prosecuted in federal court, and in February 2025 a federal judge sentenced him to 70 months in prison and ordered him to pay more than $16.5 million in restitution. Over roughly seven years, Amankwaa filed thousands of Violence Against Women Act petitions that falsely claimed his own clients had been abused by their U.S. citizen children. Many of those clients are now in deportation proceedings because of what he filed in their names.

How the Scheme Worked

From September 2016 through November 2023, Amankwaa operated out of his Bronx law office and exploited a humanitarian provision of federal immigration law. VAWA lets a foreign national who has been abused by a U.S. citizen family member self-petition for lawful permanent resident status by filing a Form I-360. Amankwaa directed clients to sign I-360 petitions that falsely alleged abuse by their U.S. citizen children, then signed each petition himself, under penalty of perjury, as the attorney preparer.¹

He frequently did not ask clients whether any abuse had occurred, and in many cases filed the fraudulent allegations without telling them what the petitions actually said.² Clients paid between $3,000 and $6,000, plus administrative fees, believing they were pursuing a legitimate path to a green card.

The scheme had a second stage. Once a fraudulent VAWA petition was on file, Amankwaa used it to obtain advance parole travel documents, then told clients to travel abroad and return using those documents so he could apply for lawful permanent resident status on their behalf.¹ Advance parole does not guarantee re-entry, and Customs and Border Protection makes the final call at the border. Some clients found that out the hard way.

The Scale of the Fraud

Prosecutors described the operation as “massive,” involving thousands of fraudulent immigration filings.³ Between fiscal years 2017 and 2023, approximately 2,346 Form I-360 VAWA petitions filed by his office were denied, withdrawn, or abandoned. That was roughly 47% of all withdrawn VAWA applications nationwide during the period.⁴ Court documents indicated that 97% of the 2,413 VAWA petitions Amankwaa filed were denied, withdrawn, or abandoned.⁵

Because the abuse claims were fabricated, immigration officers denied them at extraordinary rates. The government said Amankwaa was “often unsuccessful” at obtaining permanent resident status for his clients precisely because the underlying fraud was detectable.¹

Charges, Guilty Plea, and Sentence

The federal investigation, led by Homeland Security Investigations out of Newark with help from USCIS and the New York Attorney General’s Office, began after numerous clients complained that Amankwaa had filed false abuse allegations in their names without their knowledge.⁶

On January 22, 2024, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York unsealed a criminal complaint charging Amankwaa and his son, Kofi Amankwaa Jr., with conspiracy to defraud the United States and immigration fraud.⁷ Amankwaa’s law license had been suspended in November 2023, and he was formally disbarred in August 2024.³ On September 17, 2024, he pleaded guilty to one count of immigration fraud before U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla.⁸

On February 26, 2025, Judge Failla sentenced Amankwaa, then 70 and a resident of South River, New Jersey, to 70 months in federal prison and three years of supervised release. She also ordered him to forfeit $13,389,000 and to pay $16,503,425 in restitution.³ The statutory maximum for the offense was 10 years.⁷ Available reporting does not indicate an appeal.

What Happened to His Clients

The people most harmed by the fraud have largely been left to sort out the consequences on their own. Denied VAWA applications often trigger Notices to Appear, dragging recipients into immigration court, and many of Amankwaa’s former clients have received deportation orders.⁴

One widely reported case is that of Ricardo Velazquez, a Bronx father of four who had lived in the United States for more than 20 years. Amankwaa told him he needed to leave the country and re-enter to process his residency. When Velazquez tried to return from Mexico, he was detained at the border and deported. His family later learned that Amankwaa had filed a petition claiming Velazquez’s son had abused his parents, something Velazquez knew nothing about.⁹ His VAWA application had actually been denied about six months before the trip, but Amankwaa told him he could safely travel anyway.¹⁰

Other victims described in court filings include a woman whose residency application was denied and who was placed in removal proceedings after refusing to lie to immigration officers by claiming her daughter had abused her, and a father of two who paid a co-defendant more than $4,000 for travel documents and later discovered a false abuse petition had been filed in his name.⁹

The victims face a structural problem. Immigration agencies generally do not recognize being the victim of attorney fraud as a qualifying crime for a U-visa, and the client who signed a petition, even unknowingly, is typically held responsible for its contents. Immigration attorneys who have reviewed the situation say that clients served with deportation orders have a 30-day window to appeal, but many have struggled to find new representation; some lawyers have declined the cases, and others have asked for deposits of $5,000 or more.⁴

As of October 2025, victims reported receiving no notifications, restitution payments, or guidance from federal authorities despite the $16.5 million order. “The worst thing is that you spend thirty years here and because of someone else’s mistake, they deport you,” one victim told Documented. “Why didn’t they protect all the victims?” Another said, “If they deport me, I am never going to have a chance to come back. And that is without doing it, all because I trusted the lawyer.”⁴ The U.S. Attorney’s Office has asked anyone who believes they may be entitled to restitution to contact USANYS.VAWAFraud@usdoj.gov.²

Co-Defendants and the New York State Lawsuit

Amankwaa did not act alone. The same day the federal complaint was unsealed, the New York Attorney General filed a civil lawsuit naming five defendants: Kofi Amankwaa, Kofi Amankwaa Jr., Sylvester Boateng, Nana Adoma Kontoh, and Betty Danquah Smith. Boateng, Kontoh, and Smith operated together under the name “Boateng, Kontoh & Smith.”⁹ The state alleged that Kontoh, who is not an attorney, misrepresented herself as one, and that Amankwaa Jr. gave legal advice despite not being admitted in New York. The complaint also alleged forged client signatures, fabricated supporting letters, and pressure on clients to lie during immigration interviews.¹¹

The suit sought an injunction, an accounting, restitution and damages, and civil penalties. No settlements or final rulings have been publicly reported. In the federal criminal case, Amankwaa Jr., 37 at the time of charging, faced the same conspiracy and immigration fraud counts as his father; available reporting has not confirmed whether he has pleaded, gone to trial, or been sentenced.⁷

Effect on VAWA Policy

Amankwaa’s case became a reference point in a broader federal crackdown on VAWA petition fraud. USCIS reported that VAWA self-petitions rose by roughly 360% between fiscal years 2020 and 2024, with petitions filed by parents rising by 2,239%, a demographic not historically associated with VAWA claims.¹²

In December 2025, USCIS issued a major policy update to the VAWA self-petition program, citing “rampant fraud” and “recent fraud convictions related to the VAWA program.” The revised guidance tightened evidentiary standards, including new requirements that petitioners show they resided with the alleged abuser and provide primary evidence of a good-faith marriage.¹² Reporting by the Sahan Journal identified Amankwaa’s prosecution as one of the high-profile cases that prompted the changes, noting that the Biden administration had begun interviewing some VAWA applicants in December 2024 before the broader overhaul. Immigrant advocates have said the stricter rules could create barriers for legitimate abuse survivors seeking protection under VAWA.⁵

1
U.S. Department of Justice. Bronx Former Attorney Pleads Guilty to Large-Scale Immigration Fraud
2
USCIS. USCIS Assisted in Case Resulting in Bronx Former Attorney Sentenced to 70 Months in Prison for Large-Scale Immigration Fraud
3
U.S. Department of Justice. Bronx Former Attorney Sentenced to 70 Months in Prison for Large-Scale Immigration Fraud
4
Documented. Kofi Amankwaa New York VAWA Sentenced Fraud
5
Sahan Journal. USCIS Changes Violence Against Women Act Self-Petition
6
ICE. HSI Newark Investigation Leads to Former Bronx Attorney’s Guilty Plea in Large-Scale Immigration Fraud
7
U.S. Department of Justice. Bronx Attorney Charged With Large-Scale Immigration Fraud Scheme
8
CourtListener. United States v. Amankwaa, Sr.
9
New York Attorney General. Attorney General James Sues Fraudulent Lawyers in the Bronx for Scamming Immigrants
10
The Guardian. An Immigrant Was Told He Could Visit Home. He Was Arrested at the Airport
11
New York Attorney General. Amankwaa Pleadings
12
USCIS. USCIS Restores Integrity to the VAWA Domestic Abuse Program After Finding Rampant Fraud