Chicago-area immigration assistance business operator gets 9 years for fraud, child pornography
A Chicago-area man who ran a business helping people apply for asylum and immigrant visas was recently sentenced to nine years in prison for fraud and child pornography.
The U.S. Attorney's office said Jose Gregorio Sosa Cardona operated Delta Global Solutions Inc., which helped people apply for asylum, visas, and other immigration benefits. Prosecutors said between 2020 and 2024, Sosa Cardona conspired with others to provide false information to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on behalf of his clients.
Specifically, Sosa Cardona fabricated foreign law enforcement reports and other documents as false backup for his clients' asylum claims, prosecutors said. He also represented himself as an attorney to his clients when he was not really an attorney, and had no authority to represent anyone in immigration proceedings, prosecutors said.
In addition to the allegations surrounding his immigration assistance business, Sosa Cardona was also charged with possessing thousands of child pornography files, A court-authorized search of his electronic devices in 2024 found that he had 2,877 photos and videos of minors engaging in sexually explicit activity, prosecutors said.
Sosa Cardona also filed fraudulent tax returns for himself, and didn't pay the taxes withheld from his employees' pay between 2020 and 2023 — causing the IRS to lose about $316,000, prosecutors said.
Sosa Cardona, 41, of Downers Grove, pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiracy to defraud the United States, possession of child pornography, and tax fraud, prosecutors said. On Thursday, May 7, U.S. District Judge Sunil R. Harjani sentenced him to nine years in prison.
