Rego Park Woman Pleads Guilty To Visa Fraud, Identity Theft

REGO PARK, QUEENS — A Rego Park woman pleaded guilty on Monday to visa fraud and identity theft as part of a scheme to unlawfully bring foreigners into the United States.

Stella Boyadjian, 48, ran a nonprofit that prepared and filed fraudulent visa applications for fees of up to $10,000. She faces up to 10 years in prison and an additional mandatory sentence of two years for aggravated identity theft, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for New York's Eastern District.

From 2013 to 2014, the nonprofit, Big Apple Music Awards Foundation Inc., helped foreigners pose as members of traditional Armenian performance groups to qualify for visas for "culturally unique" artists and entertainers, known as P-3 visas.

To support the fraudulent visa applications, Boyadjian and others also purchased fake dance certificates and staged photo sessions where the foreigners wore Armenian dance costumes, according to the charges. Once in the United States, some visa recipients paid additional fees for extensions to say in the country.

The case was investigated by the Diplomatic Security Service’s Criminal Fraud Investigations and Overseas Criminal Investigations Divisions, with assistance from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate.