A Brazilian man in the U.S. illegally ran a brazen scam pretending to head a fake federal agency that trained chaplains in Florida to respond to emergency situations, prosecutors said Friday.
Mario Cesar Dos Santos Jr. ran what he called the Chaplain Emergency Management Agency, which authorities said he falsely claimed was an official part of the government endorsed by the real Federal Emergency Management Agency.
He even used FEMA, FBI and Homeland Security seals on his material to further the illusion of an official imprimatur.
He targeted fellow immigrants, and Brazilians in particular, with his scam, telling them that being certified by his agency let them “take control of emergency situations until law enforcement arrived,” Nicholas Jobson, a special agent with Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General, said in court filings.
Mr. Dos Santos also said the certification could block deportation, the agent said.
The inspector general and the FBI ran a sting operation last year, putting a confidential source into a CEMA training session where Mr. Dos Santos claimed he was a “Harvard graduate” and held a medical degree.
Agent Jobson said Mr. Dos Santos charged at least $400 to issue chaplain certificates, plus and gave out ID cards and law enforcement badges.
Mr. Dos Santos registered CEMA as a nonprofit with Massachusetts, where he said he was president, treasurer, clerk and director. The organization maintains a website, www.cemagov.org, that repeats many of the claims of official government status.
At least 30 people were in attendance at the training session infiltrated by the government last year, and Mr. Dos Santos’s WhatsApp group chat for CEMA graduates had more than 700 members.
Mr. Dos Santos came to the U.S. in 2016 and overstayed his visa.
He filed a petition to gain legal status, but it was denied in June. The government says that application included fraudulent documents, such as a fake certificate of ordination and a diploma from a “University of Berkley” in Michigan — which does not exist.
He now faces a deportation case, in addition to the criminal case.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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