Brazilian influencer charged with defrauding immigrant investors in the U.S.

Patrícia Lélis. Photo: Social media

U.S. authorities unsealed an indictment charging a Brazilian woman with falsely posing as an immigration lawyer and defrauding her clients of approximately USD 700,000.

According to the indictment, Patrícia De Oliveira Souza Lélis Bolin, aged 29 and a resident of Arlington, posed as an immigration lawyer able to help foreign clients obtain E-2 and EB-5 visas to the U.S.

Patrícia Lélis is a digital influencer, with over 463,000 followers on Instagram and 236,000 followers on X (formerly Twitter). She has not yet commented publicly on the indictment.

The influencer used to be in the right-wing, pro-Bolsonaro camp, but later switched allegiances. She also once dated Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, the third-eldest son of former President Jair Bolsonaro. Her most recent posts on social media are supportive of the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva administration.

Under the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program, investors (as well as their spouses and unmarried children under 21) are eligible to apply for a Green Card if they make the necessary investment in a commercial enterprise in the U.S. — typically, a minimum of USD 1 million.

According to the indictment, in 2021 Ms. Lélis sent a legal retainer agreement to a victim for help in obtaining EB-5 visas for the victim’s parents.

“The victim made two initial payments totaling over USD 135,000 based on Lelis Bolin’s representation that the money was going into a Texas real estate development project that qualified for the EB-5 program. Instead, the victim’s money is alleged to have gone into Lelis Bolin’s personal bank account”, says a statement by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Virginia.

The statement encourages people with information regarding the whereabouts of Ms. Lélis to contact the FBI’s Washington Field Office or the FBI’s tip line.

Ms. Lélis was charged in 2017 with extortion and making slanderous accusations after she accused an aide to Congressman Marco Feliciano, a high-profile evangelical leader in Congress, of unlawful confinement and sexual assault.