Colombian National Pleads Guilty to Orchestrating Scheme to Submit Fraudulent Asylum Applications

SAN FRANCISCO – U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services provided significant assistance in the investigation of Carlos Adolfo Haeckermann Cardenas, who pleaded guilty in federal court to orchestrating a scheme to submit dozens of false and fraudulent asylum applications to USCIS. 

Haeckermann, 62, a Colombian national residing in Doral, Florida, was indicted by a federal grand jury on Nov. 13, 2024. Under the plea agreement announced by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California, Haeckermann pleaded guilty to all four counts in the indictment, which each charge him with aiding and abetting a false statement on an immigration document, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1546(a) and 2.

In pleading guilty, Haeckermann admitted he operated a business, first in Colombia and then in the United States, in which he charged fees to guide Colombian nationals through the U.S. visa and asylum application processes. This included telling his clients what to say on their applications and in their interviews to gain permission to travel to, or to remain in, the United States. Specifically, Haeckermann frequently instructed his visa-applicant clients to inflate their professional status and business interests in, and their personal connections to, Colombia to deceive U.S. immigration officers into believing the applicants would return to Colombia without overstaying their visas. He also often embellished, and in some cases outright concocted, his asylum-applicant clients’ stories of persecution in Colombia to deceive U.S. immigration officers and to bolster his clients’ chances of being granted asylum in the United States.

The four counts to which Haeckermann pleaded guilty related to asylum applications submitted by four of Haeckermann’s clients between November 2019 and May 2020. For those four applications, Haeckermann invented a story of alleged political persecution that he recycled among each of the four applicants after changing inconsequential details. At Haeckermann’s urging and direction, all four of these applicants included the falsified story in their asylum applications. Haeckermann admitted that he also worked on dozens of other fraudulent asylum applications.

U.S. Attorney Craig H. Missakian and U.S. Department of State Diplomatic Security Service Criminal Fraud Investigations Branch Chief Jeff Rusinek made the announcement. 

Haeckermann was released on bond. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for Nov. 5 at 1 p.m. before U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria. Haeckermann faces a maximum statutory penalty of 10 years’ imprisonment and a $250,000 fine on each count. Any sentence will be imposed by the court after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the federal statute governing the imposition of a sentence, 18 U.S.C. § 3553.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas M. Parker is prosecuting the case with the assistance of Lance

Libatique and Sutton Peirce. The prosecution is the result of an investigation by DSS and USCIS.

To report suspected immigration benefit fraud or abuse to USCIS, please use the USCIS Tip Form.

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