Source: Radio New Zealand
Liberty Consulting Group Limited in Rosedale, Auckland. RNZ / Gill Bonnett
An immigration adviser caught selling a fake job at her husband’s company in taped phone conversations – after he lost his first fake job there – has lost her licence.
Heidi Castelucci, also known as Qian Yu, coached a migrant in how the $70,000 scam would work and how to hide it from authorities, the immigration advisers’ complaints and disciplinary tribunal ruled. Five other complaints from visa applicants against her have also been upheld by the tribunal, which described it as a “concerning pattern of behaviour”.
She worked at Auckland firm Liberty Consulting, trading as Liberty Immigration, but the Chinese migrant’s job was a visa facade and was terminated.
“Ms Yu then persuaded the complainant to resign on the basis he would be re-employed as a manager at twice the salary. This role also did not exist. He had to pay an unlawful premium for the position. He would pay his own salary and tax. He would have to find other employment to support himself and his family, as well as fund the premium (the Tribunal assuming he would be repaid his salary).
“Ms Yu coached him regarding this arrangement, including advice to hide it. All of this was unlawful, as she well knew. The gravity of the misconduct here is at the upper end of serious. The integrity of the immigration system is compromised by fake jobs. They strike at the heart of the system and public trust in it. The involvement of a licensed adviser in creating such a scam is to be condemned.”
The man signed a new employment contract with the agency, whose owner also runs the New Zealand Language Institute and Foreign Exchange Program, as a $100,000-a-year business development manager, being told he would pay $70,000 for the company to support his residence visa – that he could fund through cash-in-hand jobs elsewhere.
He paid one $7500 instalment for the non-existent job before raising the alarm and leaving New Zealand with his children. The tribunal said a fee of $2000-$4000 would have been reasonable for immigration advice for his work visas, but in all he paid $25,588.
Qian Yu/Heidi Castelucci. Immigration Advisers Authority
Castelucci/Yu had not responded to any of the allegations, but when the tribunal turned to considering penalties she expressed deep remorse, and pointed to “a concentrated period of profound personal, medical and psychological collapse”.
“The extenuating circumstances advanced appear to have occurred after she set up the scam with the fake job,” the tribunal concluded.
“The public need to be protected from advisers who conceive arrangements themselves to exploit clients and the immigration system. Her dishonesty here warrants cancellation of her licence on its own. Despite one belated letter acknowledging her wrongdoing and expressing remorse, the tribunal is not persuaded she has ‘turned a leaf’.”
She received abusive and threatening messages and phone calls when the offending became public, she said, and been forced to repay fees when other migrants became aware of what she had done.
Publicity from the case had already severely damaged her professional reputation, her licence was suspended, many clients terminated retainers and she suffered substantial loss and medical fees.
The tribunal fined her $4000 and noted it could only cancel her licence for a maximum of two years, with the registrar of immigration advisers deciding if she could be relicensed.
Job tokens
The migrant’s employment advocate May Moncur said lifetime bans should be available for cases involving dishonesty. “I think if it’s a character issue, two years is too short. I would say a life ban would be more appropriate. And also that would send a message. When the deterrent is severe enough, that would deliver a strong message.”
May Moncur The Detail/Sharon Brettkelly
Jobs were still being sold via ‘tokens’ INZ gave to companies that gained accreditation to recruit migrants.
“The worst I’ve seen, you know, agents, these kind of proxies, recruited probably dozens or even a hundred workers. I don’t know what kind of penalties or sanctions they are subjected to. It’s very disappointing, actually, that they’ve made millions in illegal incomes, and New Zealand benefited nothing.
“Those migrants, they paid a huge premium to come to New Zealand, hoping to have a genuine employment but ended up with no job, no income, and not only themselves, also their family members were affected by such a scam.”
It also created a distorted economy, with tax revenue losses from workers being paid under the table.
“It really undermines the real employment opportunities, because some companies, they could make a profit out of selling job tokens, which is still going on nowadays.
“Some people may think naively this has nothing to do with them and they are not in the immigration sector. It’s not good for anyone. It’s really affecting everybody in New Zealand.”
One recent example was a woman charged almost 200,000 RMB ($49,000) for a job, she said.
“I’m still being approached by some migrant workers and I understand there are licensed immigration advisors who are actively involved in the recruitment process and outside their immigration services and all responsibility, they are acting as proxies to charge illegal premiums.”
The Registrar of Companies has initiated action to remove Liberty Consulting, an immigration firm based in the North Shore suburb of Rosedale, from its register. A new company set up by Castelucci’s husband last year, Global Pathways Consulting, operates from the same address.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
