New Delhi, June 18 -- In orange county, Florida, high-dollar fraud cases usually involve dubious crypto and real-estate deals or tax evasion. But in late April the sheriff announced something stranger. The state attorney-general's office is accusing a man, his wife, and two others of running a fake immigration-law firm out of a boarded-up Orlando storefront. Operating as "Legacy Imigra", they allegedly charged hundreds of immigrants-mostly Brazilians, in at least four states-for bogus services and filed fraudulent asylum applications on their behalf while holding their real documents ransom. The indictment claims the foursome swindled aspiring Americans out of more than $20m.

Federal prosecutors in New York are going after an even more e...