Nipomo woman pleads guilty to falsifying hundreds of immigration forms
A San Luis Obispo County woman pleaded guilty to multiple crimes on May 7, related to her misuse of doctor credentials to create hundreds of false medical records for immigrants seeking legal permanent residency.
Chantelle Lavergne Woods, 54, pleaded guilty to one count of presentation of false immigration document or application and one count of possession with intent to distribute phendimetrazine, an appetite suppressant, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Woods is currently free on a $10,000 bond.
Woods, a resident of Nipomo, formerly operated and managed a clinic in Arroyo Grande that at times was known as “Medical Weight Loss and Immigration Services.” According to her plea agreement, beginning in 2021, Woods knowingly misused the identities of three physicians to create hundreds of fraudulent documents.
These documents relate to medical examinations of individuals seeking to register for a lawful permanent resident (LPR) card — commonly known as a “green card” — or otherwise adjust their immigration status.
According to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, a submission of a medical examination and vaccination record is required to assess several physical and mental health factors to determine if an applicant is inadmissible to the United States on health-related grounds.
Federal law further requires licensed physicians to perform these examinations and then sign a form attesting to the factthat they truly and accurately completed the form based on the examination and the information provided by the applicant.
According to the DA’s office, Woods knowingly completed at least 328 such forms on which she falsely included the signature of medical doctors, thereby representing that the individual had been medically examined by a doctor, when in fact they had not.
In fact, at times when there were no physicians present at the clinic, Woods acted without physician authorization, and the clinic did not provide legitimate medical services.
She further admitted that from February 2021 to June 2022, Woods used the Drug Enforcement Administration registration number of a deceased physician to order more than 150,000 tablets of controlled substances, including testosterone, codeine, alprazolam (AKA Xanax), diethylpropion and phentermine.
In July 2022, at the clinic, Woods knowingly and intentionally possessed with intent to distribute phendimetrazine — a weight-loss drug — as well as a loaded firearm.
United States District Judge Fernando M. Olguin scheduled a July 31 sentencing hearing. Woods is facing a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison for each count.
