For all the talk and theories that abound among political observers and Tea Party activists, it isn't too often that you see a federal official caught red-handed taking bribes like 39-year-old Constantine Peter Kallas was yesterday.
Kallas, a federal immigration attorney from Alta Loma, was found guilty yesterday of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribe money from illegal immigrants trying to stay in the United States. He faces more than 250 years in prison when he is sentenced this summer.
Kallas was arrested in 2008 after taking a $20,000 bribe from an illegal immigrant at a Southern California casino. Investigators later found that nearly $1 million in bribe money may have ended up in accounts held by Kallas and his wife, who was also arrested.
The anatomy of the scam looked something like this, according to published reports:
Kallas set up two companies that were able to successfully file employment petitions for several immigrants, falsely claiming that the immigrants would work for the companies in order to keep them in the country.
He also used his official position at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to squelch removal proceedings against the daughter of his housekeeper, who paid him $7,000 in exchange.
A search of his house after his arrest turned up a hidden floor safe containing cash and several immigration files.
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