Rhony Laigo PinoyWatchDog.com JoelBanderLaw Balita owner anthony allen at center of immigration fraud scandal

1. Balita Owner Anthony Allen — at Center of Immigration Fraud Scandal
By Rene Villaroman with PWD Investigative Team
In the last issue of
PinoyWatchDog.com we exposed how Attorney Beirne’s office used three false and non-
existent companies as a front to scam Filipino Reynaldo Anson Villarica of Cavite out of
thousands of dollars of immigration fees. Beirne’s law office forwarded Notice of Job Availability
that our investigators determined had a false company, fake address and phone number having
no relationship to any employers at all.
New documents have now surfaced demonstrating that Anthony Allen, the general manager of
Beirne Law Offices, was directly involved in trying to hide the fact that a non-existent employer
sponsor was used to lure Mr. Villarica to pay exhorbitant legal fees to the Beirne Law Office for
a non-attainable green card. Mr. Allen is also the co-owner of Balita Newspapers, along with his
wife, Luchie Mendoza Allen. Numerous court filings and testimony in federal proceedings have

2. discussed that Anthony Allen and his wife Luchie Mendoza Allen are the real non-attorney
owners of Beirne Law Offices.
On February 13, 2002, Anthony Allen wrote Mr. Villarica that he would charge him extra legal
fees to hasten the processing of the employment visa from the false company. The letter states
that “there should not be any problem getting the current sponsor to sign an RIR petition for
you.” This letter was signed by Anthony Allen without any indication that he was not a lawyer.
However, left unanswered is how a non-existent company could sign anything at all.
Mr. Villarica dutifully paid yet another attorney fee to the Beirne Law Office for an expedited
processing known as Reduction in Recruitment (RIR). However, the U.S. Department of Labor
returned the filing to the Beirne Law Office, stating that numerous ‘deficiencies’ existed, and
requesting an amended filing. However, Beirne Law Office never made further efforts to
expedite the visa application after taking Villarica’s money and being told by the government the
filing was defective.
Then, one year later, Mr. Anthony Allen, on February 6, 2003, wrote Mr. Villarica again, stating
that the false employer was “no longer in a position to sponsor you.” The letter continues “the
good news is, that you are a 245(i) beneficiary. This means that the 245(i) waiver can be
transferred to a new immigrantbased petition.”
An immigration lawyer who processed hundreds of employment based petitions during this
period said that the “245(i) waiver being transferable is simply false. The initial petition had to be
approveable when filed. Since this was a fake company there was no priority date that could
have been preserved. From my review of the file the Beirne office clearly knew this the whole
way through the process.”

3. The letter continues that “there is no need [for Villarica] to respond to the letter” as another
petition was being processed on his behalf. “This is also crazy,” the immigration lawyer said. “An
employment visa beneficiary does not sit at home without any involvement in the petition. The
employer and employee both must be involved.” The experienced immigration lawyer asked that
their name not be used, as Balita Media is quite ruthless in attacking anyone who criticizes
them.
The February 6, 2003 Anthony Allen letter also did not indicate that he was not an attorney.
Many commentators to PinoyWatchDog.com have advised that they thought Anthony Allen was
their lawyer and were led to believe that he was an attorney.
Mr. Villarica told PinoyWatchDog.com that until he saw other similar articles about Attorney
Beirne’s office in our newspaper that he was afraid to talk to anyone about these experiences.
He told me that the last time he visited the Beirne Law Office to complain he said that Anthony
Allen held him by the arm very firmly and said, “You have to be patient, these things take time.”
Villarica recently told PinoyWatchDog.com that “the way he was holding me, I felt very
threatened. I never contacted them again.” Anthony Allen is about six foot four.

4. “Now that these documents have been explained to me it all makes sense now what they were
doing to me. I had no way of knowing back then.” Villarica said. “At least others will now know
how the Beirne Law Firm operates so other Filipinos will not be hurt.”