Teacher Recruitment Scam

Sept 27, 2007 - Foreign teacher recruitment scam.

Judge Kathleen Cardone of the United District Court of Western District of Texas in El Paso set the new trial of three Filipino recruiters on Jan. 4, 2008. The accused are held for allegedly bringing hundreds of Filipino teachers into the United States even if most of them have no job employments waiting for them.

The month long jury trial was announced by Daryl Fields, public affairs officer of the United States Attorney’s office in Houston, Texas. Named in the 26-page “second superceding indictment” were OMNI Consortium, Multicultural Professionals, Multicultural Education Consultants Noel Cedro Tolentino, his wife Angelica Tolentino, and his mother, Florita Tolentino.

The recruiting company charged the prospective teachers a number of fees.

Each teacher was also required to pay $1,500.00 placement fee “to a Philippine company, associated with defendants,” where defendants have percentage; “pay one of the defendants airfare, furniture and other assorted fees” after being selected by a school district for possible employment; or a total of approximately “$10,000.00 or more, requiring many of the teachers to acquire loans at high interest (60% APR) rates thru their associates “C.J. Librodo and/or Owen Carsi Cruz.”

They recruited for Ysleta Independent School District (YISD), Socorro Independent School District (SISD), El Paso School Independent School District (EPSID) -- all in El Paso -- together with South San Antonio Independent School District (SSAISD), and Brownsville Independent School District (BISD).

In BISD, although only 16 teachers were needed, OMNI requisitioned for 38. Originally, 100 job orders were placed. For YISD, the Omni Consortium recruited 53 teachers although only two were needed. Omni subsequently allowed 43 to travel to the U.S.

Out of the originally requested 100 teachers for SISD, nothing was accepted but OMNI still sent 69 “displaced” teachers to the US. For EPISD, out of 33 recruits, three were not accepted but still traveled to the US.

OMNI usually asked prospective schools representatives to travel to the Philippines and other countries like China to interview recruits. One of the representatives, Mario Aguilar, former superintendent of the Socorro Independent School District, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of failing to report gifts to a public official. This included a trip to China within the trip to the Philippines. He was sentenced to one year of probation.

Aguilar’s wife, Vista Del Sol Elementary School Principal Magdalena Aguilar was also sentenced to one year of probation for receiving a gift. Six-month probation.

Raye Lokey, former Ysleta Independent School District associate superintendent for human resources, was sentenced to six months of probation for aiding illegal entry. The US attorney’s office said that 273 Filipino teachers were brought to the United States during 2002-04. Less than 100 actually had jobs waiting for them.

GUILTY PLEA Jan 5, 2008 - Noel Cedro Tolentino and his mother, Florita Cedro Tolentino both pleaded guilty on Jan 2 to conspiracy to defraud the U.S. in exchange for the dismissal of all the other charges. It wasn't clear Friday what happened to the case against Angelica Tolentino.

As part of the their plea, the Tolentinos also agreed to forfeit assets, including a 1996 Mercedes Benz, a 1999 BMW, real estate properties in Houston and McAllen, and money from five bank accounts. They are scheduled to be sentenced in March.

SENTENCED August 26 - Both Noel Tolentino and his mother were sentenced to three months probation each. Charges against Noel Tolentino's wife, Angelica Tolentino, who was also implicated in the case, were dismissed Friday after she agreed to not contest the forfeiture order. Noel was detained by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement. His work visa had expired.

The 2007 trial was declared a mistrial because a couple of jury members said they had read a newspaper article about the proceedings.