SERVILLANA Soriano, through attorney Mark Hanson, has appealed her conviction and sentence imposed by the District Court for the NMI.
The appeal was filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
In the district court, Hanson filed a motion for his client’s release pending the outcome of her appeal to the Ninth Circuit.
According to Hanson, Soriano’s appeal raises substantial questions of law likely to result in reversal or an order for a new trial or a sentence that does not include a term of imprisonment.
Hanson said Soriano intends to challenge the admission at trial of her “written statement.”
“The Court is well aware of the substantive bases for Ms. Soriano’s challenge to the written statement which the Court notes in its July 2, 2021 Memorandum Decision re: Defendant’s Objection to the Admission of Defendant’s Written Statement,” Hanson said.
“Ms. Soriano also intends to challenge the admission at trial of the unfounded testimony of Senior Immigration Officer Monica Verma, pointedly solicited by the Government during its brief re-direct examination of Ms. Verma, that at the time of the charged conspiracy in this case there was a statutory or regulatory prohibition on an employer/petitioner of CW-1 status for a foreign worker in the Commonwealth seeking and obtaining reimbursement from the foreign worker beneficiary for the costs to the employer/petitioner of obtaining that CW-1 status,” Hanson added.
“In particular, Ms. Soriano submits that without the admission of her written statement there was insufficient evidence from which the jury could reasonably infer that Ms. Soriano became a member of a conspiracy to defraud USCIS knowing of its illegal objective and intending to accomplish it. That patently prejudicial error at trial was only compounded by the unfounded testimony of Ms. Verma and by other evidentiary errors at trial,” Hanson said.
“Ms. Soriano would submit that the written statement admitted against her was contradicted by other evidence of contemporaneous statements of Ms. Soriano that negate the efficacy of the statement as a whole — the patently self-serving statement having been drafted by the Government’s case agent not actual[ly] made by Ms. Soriano herself,” Hanson added.
“The immunized testimony of Arnold Reyes also negated any reasonable inference that Ms. Soriano could have had the knowledge of the wrongfulness of her actions and, therefore, she lacked the requisite intent to deceive U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.”
Stated differently, Hanson said, “the evidence clearly demonstrated that Ms. Soriano was act[ing] on an honest and good faith misunderstanding as to the requirements of the law, not act[ing] with an intent to defraud [even though] her understanding of the law [was] wrong or even irrational.”
Hanson said “the testimonial and documentary evidence in this case does not suggest beyond a reasonable doubt that Ms. Soriano knowingly and intentionally became a member of a conspiracy to defraud the United States.”
Moreover, according to Hanson, his client intends to challenge the court’s sentencing which appeared to be based in material part on her exercising her Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial.
“At a minimum, Ms. Soriano makes a case on appeal that is at least one ‘substantial question,’ i.e., fairly debatable, that is the type of question that would require reversal if she were to prevail. On this basis of her appeal alone, the court should grant Ms. Soriano’s request for release pending appeal,” Hanson said.
Soriano, 61, filed the notice of appeal following her sentencing on Sept. 9, 2022.
Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona of the District Court for the NMI sentenced Soriano to one month in prison for one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States government.
Soriano will also be placed on seven months’ home detention as part of her probation, and three years of supervised release.
Soriano was directed to self-surrender to U.S. Marshals at the Department of Corrections on Oct. 14 at 8 a.m.
Last year, a jury found Soriano guilty for her involvement in a CW-1 visa scheme in which her manpower agency, RES International LLC would, in exchange for money, submit a petition for CW-1 classification that would falsely and fraudulently represent that an employer-employee relationship would exist between RES and the beneficiaries under the employment terms set forth in the petition.
