NEW YORK — A former United Nations volunteer held himself out as a staffer to con immigrants out of thousands of dollars, even using the U.N.'s headquarters as a set for his scam, prosecutors said Monday.
Marc Payen, falsely claiming to be a U.N. lawyer or immigration service staffer, had victims meet him in the agency's public lobby and told them his office was upstairs, the Manhattan district attorney's office said.
Payen — already on probation after last year admitting a Queens immigration scheme — pleaded not guilty Monday to grand larceny, forgery and other charges stemming from the Manhattan U.N. case. He was being held on $75,000 bail.
The Haitian-born Payen was just a volunteer tasked with providing information about housing to U.N. employees, not an attorney or an authorized immigration service provider, prosecutors said.
He took more than $12,000 for work he never did to help six victims get green cards or other forms of legal residency, including a special temporary residency granted to some Haitians after January's devastating earthquake in their homeland, prosecutors said.
Payen's lawyer, D. Andrew Marshall, said that even if it's eventually proved that Payen didn't do what he was paid for, "whether a crime was committed is another matter."
U.N. representatives didn't immediately respond to an e-mail message Monday evening. Prosecutors said the U.N. has banned Payen from its buildings.
"(Payen) is an opportunist who preyed upon vulnerable immigrants," said District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr., who hosted a forum in February to warn Haitians to be on the lookout for immigration scammers trying to capitalize on the temporary residency provision.
Payen, 28, also was accused of taking pay for phony promises of help getting green cards and work permits in Queens, prosecutors there said. He pleaded guilty in March 2009 to attempted grand larceny and was sentenced to five years' probation, they said.
If convicted in the Manhattan case, he faces up to seven years in prison.
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