PORTLAND, Maine — In December, Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey sued a Maine man for allegedly using his status as a religious leader to scam asylum seekers.
Frey has since met with asylee groups and nonprofits, and published resources on the state's website in an effort to better serve the vulnerable population before scammers get to them.
In a 13-page complaint filed in Kennebec County Superior Court, Frey alleged Shonda Okonda broke Maine's Immigration and Nationality Assistance Act, and its Unfair Trade Practices Act. By law, only an attorney or accredited representative can provide legal help with immigration.
The complaint alleged Okonda started the Christian Association for Peace, Leadership, and Development in 2020 on Congress Street in Portland. Around that same time, Frey alleged, Okonda founded and presided over Open Door Ministries, two doors down from CAPLD. As of Thursday, that building is locked, dark, and posted for rent. From these organizations, Frey argued Okonda used his status as religious leader to prey on others.
The suit alleges he scammed as many as 50 people, approaching and offering to help file necessary asylum paperwork. Often, Frey wrote in the complaint, Okonda would demand direct payment. At other times, he would suggest the asylee make a donation to Open Door. The suit claims Okonda would deposit the donations into his own bank account.
And often, Frey said, the desperately-needed paperwork would never be completed.
"These individuals face severe consequences if they don't get their process filed right," Frey said during a Thursday interview. At best, asylum seekers would be out the money and back to square one with the process. At worst, they would miss hard deadlines or file fraudulent paperwork; setting them on a course for deportation, back to whatever dire situation they fled.
That, Frey said, made the actions especially reprehensible.
"These individuals are seeking asylum, protection. They are coming from countries where, if they complain to the government, that could have very serious repercussions for their wellbeing," Frey explained. "They are not going to tell the government that they are being victimized because of the experience that they are fleeing from their home country, and Mr. Okonda knew that."
One block from the shuttered church and business on Congress Street, Mathurin Ngoy does the work.
Twice a week, every week in the Portland Library basement, he helps up to seven people with the asylum process; translating forms while a licensed attorney makes sure they’re correct; all free of charge for the nonprofit Hope Acts. Each week, a new group comes in, and Ngoy said they often include victims of scammers posing as pastors; taking their money and improperly filing papers, if at all; leaving them on a path to deportation.
"When a pastor says, 'Oh yeah, we’ll be able to help you with application; you will get a job; you will start working, 'OK!" Ngoy explained. "And if he asks you for money, you do that."
NEWS CENTER Maine emailed an address listed on the Open Door Facebook page, but the message bounced back as "undeliverable." We called the cell number listed as well. When it rang to voicemail, the automated voice said the mailbox was full, and then it hung up the call.
The Kennebec County clerk told us on Thursday that there was no attorney listed to represent Okonda in the matter.
Back on Congress Street, two blocks from Okonda’s church, Lisa Parisio’s attorney colleagues at the 30-year-old Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project help file the right paperwork for asylum seekers who can’t afford an attorney.
"When we see people who are taking advantage of asylum seekers, who are preying upon them in order to trick them out of their money, what they’re doing is they’re affecting their ability to actually receive this life-saving protection," she said.
Frey said he wanted to help send more people to accredited training so they can offer their services and help fill in these gaps in the asylum process.