The presidential campaign has put a spotlight on illegal immigration. It’s a big issue that hits home around here.
It’s easy to say illegals shouldn’t be here anyway so who cares about their problems? But when it comes to people getting ripped off, we care.
That’s why we got involved in Anna’s situation. We’re not using her full name because she is an illegal resident of Queens. She and her family gave about $17,000 to a guy they say was the family priest, Rajesh Jhangdharie. He promised to get them work permits and green cards. We haven’t checked into his religious background because it’s not that relevant here. All that really matters is he has their money and they never received any papers and haven’t gotten a full refund.
Anna told me, “He promised that he would get back to us in a certain amount of days. When the time had passed we tried getting touch with him and there wasn’t any answer.”
Anna believes Rajesh has pulled the same thing on others. “I want to expose him for the lies and there are probably families that are worse than me.”
Anna said that in the three and a half years and Rajesh has returned only a few hundred dollars to each family member.
So we went looking for him. He wasn’t home. But I ran into his landlord who told me Rajesh was in Trinidad. The landlord said Rajesh owes him money too.
I got on the phone to Trinidad. Whoever it was who answered the number hung up on me. So I called his wife. She said she’s not involved with Rajesh’s wheeling and dealing. And she told me some guy named Ali has the money and will get it to Anna over the weekend.
Honestly, given what’s gone on, I wasn’t buying this. Seeing is believing.
Then over the weekend, some new twists. I got a text from a lawyer named Lawrence Fisher. He wanted to discuss the $17K. I told him no deal…just get the money paid. Then Anna gets a call from someone who says she’ll get the money as long as the story doesn’t go on TV. Sorry, we not here to be blackmailed. The story goes on.
Finally, Anna gets another call telling her she’ll get her money at the lawyer’s office this week. Seeing is believing. If it happens, we’ll be happy to report that Rajesh did the right thing.
