Vagner Soares De Almeida
Introduction
Vagner Soares De Almeida is the Brazilian founder of Legacy Imigra, an Orlando immigration-services agency that Orange County Sheriff John Mina said posed as a law firm while extracting millions from migrants seeking legal status. He was arrested April 22, 2026 alongside his wife and two associates on Florida charges of racketeering, organized fraud, extortion and unauthorized practice of law, and on November 2, 2026 he was named in a 13-defendant federal indictment charging conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, visa fraud, unlawful employment of aliens and marriage fraud. Investigators estimate the scheme collected about $20 million over three years, mostly from Brazilian nationals, and the Post reported that nearly $1.7 million has been recovered for approximately 200 victims. An indictment is a formal charge, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Background Information
Per federal court records, De Almeida owned and operated Legacy Imigra Solutions LLC, a Florida-registered entity based on Kingspointe Parkway in Orlando, from August 18, 2023 through April 20, 2026. The agency advertised legal services mainly to Brazilians living in Florida and elsewhere in the United States, presenting itself as a professional establishment employing immigration experts and attorneys; investigators say that representation was false and that clients were charged significant fees for fraudulent or improperly filed applications. Better Business Bureau complaints dating to 2024 described clients paying thousands of dollars while asylum cases languished without being filed, and one complainant accused the firm of “illegally holding my work permit unless I pay an additional $500.” His wife, Juliana Colucci, and associates Ronaldo De Campos and Lucas Trindade Silva worked in the operation, according to the sheriff’s office.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Arrested, then federally indicted. De Almeida was arrested April 22, 2026 with his wife and two associates on Florida charges including racketeering, organized fraud and extortion, and on November 2, 2026 a federal grand jury in the Middle District of Florida charged him and twelve others in an alleged conspiracy to defraud the United States and immigrant clients through false advice, falsified documents and sham marriages. The charges are allegations only; no plea or trial date has been reported.
The April arrests were announced by Sheriff Mina after a monthslong investigation by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, Homeland Security Investigations and the Florida Attorney General’s Office. Mina said his federal partners believed it “might be the biggest immigration fraud case they’ve ever seen,” and estimated Legacy Imigra had amassed about $20 million over three years. Ten other people taken into custody around the arrests were living illegally in the United States and were turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to Brazilian Times reporting cited by the Sentinel, and De Almeida, Colucci and Silva were held in the Orange County Jail on immigration detainers themselves while De Campos was booked on a $211,000 bond.
The scheme’s mechanics, per investigators, included falsely claiming the staff were qualified immigration attorneys, charging significant fees for fraudulent or improperly filed applications, and creating fake email accounts in unwitting clients’ names; Mina said that once victims were financially committed, “Legacy Imigra escalated its control,” threatening to withhold their documents until they paid more. Seven victims who cooperated with the investigation reported losses between $2,500 and $26,000 each, and the case reached detectives only after an actual attorney reported the alleged scam.
On November 2, 2026, United States Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe announced the federal indictment in Orlando: court records allege De Almeida, listed as 54 in the federal charging documents, owned and operated the LLC while it misrepresented itself as employing immigration experts and attorneys, gave false, inaccurate and incomplete legal and immigration advice to induce prospective clients to retain its services, and falsified immigration documents to fraudulently obtain status and benefits for clients. De Almeida and Colucci, 47, along with Silva, 34, and De Campos, 35, were each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, two counts of wire fraud, four counts of conspiracy to commit visa fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit marriage fraud and one count of unlawful employment of aliens. Eight more defendants were named alongside them — Erick Bruno Goncalves De Assis Pinto, Nathalia Da Costa Ferreira, Nathalia Gomes Ciriaco and Kelen Cristina Da Silva on wire-fraud and visa-fraud conspiracy counts, and Issac Antonio Narvaez, Ronay Castillo Salazar, Rebeca Aldama Garcia, Mijail Cabera Nunez and Lorraine Soares Oliverira on marriage-fraud conspiracy counts, which court records allege De Almeida and Colucci also joined. Each wire-fraud count carries a 20-year maximum; conspiracy to commit visa fraud is punishable by up to 10 years, marriage-fraud conspiracy by five, and unlawful employment of aliens by six months.
Public Reaction and Consequences
Sheriff Mina’s announcement set the tone: “Some of them have saved money, all of their life savings, and now have been defrauded out of that money and extorted and exploited,” he said of the firm’s mostly Brazilian clientele. The US Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida promoted the federal charges on X, describing the case as the product of a joint Homeland Security Task Force investigation involving federal, state and local agencies, with HSI offices in Orlando, Tampa and Brasília participating alongside the IRS’s criminal arm. The Sentinel reported that the affected migrants appear eligible for U-visas, the protected status available to crime victims who cooperate with law enforcement, while affidavits in the state case were sealed and the firm’s website was reduced to a maintenance message after the takedown. By the time the federal charges were announced, the Post reported authorities had recovered nearly $1.7 million for approximately 200 victims, with the funds still moving through the forfeiture process before they can be returned.
Current Status
De Almeida faces parallel state and federal prosecutions, and neither has produced a reported resolution: the April 2026 Florida charges remain per available reporting, and the November 2, 2026 federal indictment — which the Justice Department’s announcement stresses is a formal charge carrying a presumption of innocence — has not produced a reported plea, trial date or disposition. He was held in the Orange County Jail on an immigration detainer following his April arrest, per the Sentinel’s account at the time. The recovered $1.7 million remains in forfeiture processing before victims can be repaid, and Assistant US Attorney Bianca Bansal is prosecuting the federal case. No public statement from De Almeida or his counsel has been reported in either case.
Impact on Their Career/Life
The wire-fraud counts alone carry up to 20 years each, and with the visa-fraud and marriage-fraud conspiracies the 13-count slate exposes De Almeida to decades of theoretical prison time if convicted. The collapse of Legacy Imigra ended an operation that, per the sheriff’s estimate, took in roughly $20 million from migrants who often handed over their life savings, and left about 200 documented victims waiting on forfeiture proceedings to recover approximately $1.7 million. His wife and both named associates are co-defendants, and ten employees swept up in the April arrests were turned over to ICE custody.
Sources
- “‘Biggest immigration fraud ever’: Fake Orlando legal service fleeced mostly Brazilian migrants, sheriff says, Orlando Sentinel” source
- “Orange County Sheriff: Immigration agency and founder arrested for racketeering and fraud, WFTV” source
- “Thirteen Charged in Alleged Immigration and Marriage Fraud Conspiracy, Jurelist (DOJ/USCIS release text)” source
- “Orlando Fraud Case Charges 13 Foreign Nationals From Brazil, Cuba, Hoodline” source
- “13 face federal charges in immigration fraud scheme that targeted hundreds, NY Post” source