More than a dozen San Diego County small business owners say they’ve done nothing wrong. They say they’ve dedicated their careers to helping immigrants achieve the American dream. And yet they, and hundreds of their colleagues throughout Southern California, argue they’re facing malicious lawsuits designed for one purpose – to shake them down for tens of thousands of dollars in legal settlements.
Elizabeth Arroyo Quintero also operates an immigration consulting business in Chula Vista. She says she’s able to help immigrants without charging high prices that some lawyers might charge for the same form-preparation work. In July, NBC 7 Investigates became aware of the lawsuits filed in San Diego County. When we started digging deeper, we learned this had been happening all over Southern California for years. The bulk of lawsuits were filed in Los Angeles County, with at least 239 since 2015. 43 were filed in Orange County and 7 in Riverside County. Here in San Diego, 19 lawsuits have been filed so far.
The person behind every single lawsuit is Sebastian Medvei with the Immigrant Rights Defense Council. Not only does he run the group, he’s also its attorney, operating the Medvei Law Group based in Glendale. Through this legal arrangement, essentially representing himself, he’s filed hundreds of lawsuits.
“So he literally just changes our names,” Avalos said. “If you'd have certain allegations against each of us, then there'd be different causes of actions listed on the loss. And there isn't.” “It's really a difficult pickle because the law does give them the authority to do this,” Anderson said.Consultants say after filing, Medvei offers them settlement packages ranging from $5,000-$20,000 to cover his attorney fees and court costs. Many of the women we spoke with say they felt forced to pay him off, fearing an even costlier court battle.
“What we're alleging is violations of the law,” Medvei said. “We are entitled to pursue violations of law in every single case…I’m very proud to actually be working on these cases and working on this law.” “The LLC that's involved in these cases doesn't get a profit,” Medvei said. “They don't get any money. I get the money. Any money that's paid is for my fees.”
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