Image via Shutterstock.

Mardoqueo M. Sanchez’s company, Unlimited Technology and Solution Corporation, advertised a variety of services: website building, accounting, business consulting, and immigration law.

The problem was that Sanchez and his company could not practice law, and their help resulted in one consumer getting stuck in El Salvador for months and another losing out on more than a year of work over incorrectly filed documents, among other consequences, according to a legal complaint filed in D.C. Superior Court by the D.C. Attorney General’s Office.

Today D.C. AG Karl Racine announced a settlement with Sanchez that will return to consumers the fees they paid to Sanchez and his company. Under the agreement, UTS and Sanchez must reimburse those fees, which the AG’s office says will be at least $100,000, and work to identify consumers entitled to restitution. People paid between $80 and $500 to UTS on average.

The company is also on the hook for $150,000 in civil penalties to the District, half of which will be waived if Sanchez and UTS comply with the terms of the legal agreement.

It also makes permanent an injunction that prevents UTS from suggesting in marketing materials that the company employs lawyers, and from using the term “notario publico” or “notary public.” UTS is headquartered in the heart of Adams Morgan on Columbia Road NW.

When reached by phone Sanchez had no comment, and directed us to his lawyers at Eccleston & Wolf, who have not responded to requests for comments.

The crime Sanchez settled over is called notario fraud. In Latin America, notaries “can do a lot more than they can in this country,” says Assistant Attorney General Richard Rodriguez, who led the case for the AG’s office. “Because of that, a lot of Latin American immigrants are susceptible to notario fraud because [people] can use the term ‘notario’ and it gives the impression that they can do a lot more work than they’re actually allowed to do.”

For instance, while notaries in the United States can help a person fill out an immigration form by translating documents, they cannot even choose which form to fill out, per federal and D.C. law. That’s a legal decision, because different forms could result in various outcomes for clients.

UTS advertised in Spanish-language media in the area, including in print and on the radio.

Rodriguez says that the affected consumers had a variety of different immigration statuses, and that many were DREAMERs, meaning people who became documented under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which requires participants to renew their status every two years.

The AG’s office became involved through Ayuda, a local non-profit that runs Project END (Eradicating Notario Deceit).

This is the first notario fraud case filed in D.C. Superior Court, according to Robert Marus, the communications director for the D.C. Attorney General. The D.C. AG’s office is part of a working group from the Council for Court Excellence that focuses on notario fraud.

Generally, those cases are handled on an individual basis by the D.C. bar, says Rodriguez. However, he says the “extensiveness” of UTS’ actions compelled the AG’s office to take on the case.

It’s unknown how frequently notario fraud happens in the District, because it so often goes unreported.

Rodriguez says that his office can only help consumers who come forward to complain. Few, if any, of the complaints to the office are in Spanish. He notes that heightened fears among the immigrant community are further contributing to the dearth of people coming forward, and suggests that those uncomfortable reaching out directly to the government instead reach out to a non-profit that can pass along the complaints to his office.

UTS Consent Judgment (1) by Rachel Kurzius on Scribd