Attorney General Keith Ellison filed a lawsuit Monday against a Bloomington business that purports to help clients obtain tourist visas for relatives in Mexico, accusing the company of consumer fraud.
The business, Nueva Vision Latinoamerica, charges clients thousands of dollars for U.S. tourist visas that should cost around $180. The company is owned by Christian Palacios of Woodbury, a familiar face in the local Latino community who often appears on popular local Spanish-speaking media and social media.
Ellison’s office is suing Palacios; her spouse, Juan Diego Guevara Sanchez; and Nueva Vision Latinoamerica LLC based on more than 100 consumer reports filed against them. The suit accuses the couple of using clients’ payments to live a “lavish” lifestyle that included the purchase of a $67,000 BMW, a $183,000 Bentley, Versace handbags and plastic surgery.
“No one should be taken advantage of because they miss their family,” Attorney General Ellison said in a news release announcing the suit. “But that’s what defendants did. They aggressively targeted people who had not seen their parents or siblings for years, offering to obtain tourist visas for people by submitting visa applications on their family members’ behalf.
“I filed this lawsuit so no one else is harmed or defrauded into giving up their savings, because someone saw people’s love of their families as a way to scam hard-working Minnesotans.”
Sahan Journal published a story in September about consumer concerns surrounding Nueva Vision, profiling five women who paid the business as much as $2,700 and waited as long as eight years to receive visas for relatives in Mexico.
None of the five women received visas for their loved ones, and said they depended on Nueva Vision because they’re undocumented and cannot return to Mexico to see their relatives, a common scenario for many of Palacios’ clients.
Palacios, however, maintained that their relatives likely would have received visas had the woman stayed on as her clients. She told Sahan Journal that Nueva Vision helps clients fill out visa applications for the U.S. State Department, coaches clients on how to conduct their required interview and takes care of their transportation and airfare to the United States.
“We never guarantee success with our services,” Palacios told Sahan Journal in an August interview. “Only securing an appointment at the U.S. consulate to apply for a visa. After that, it’s no longer up to us.”
One former client, Priscila, who Sahan Journal is not fully naming because she is undocumented, worked with Nueva Vision for six years to get her father a tourist visa. When she became a client of Nueva Vision, Priscila’s father was 65 and in good health. Recently, his health took a turn for the worst and he can no longer walk or travel.
“I told him we couldn’t do it anymore,” Priscila told Sahan Journal through tears.
The attorney general’s suit alleges that Palacios and her spouse violated the Minnesota Consumer Fraud Act, Minnesota Deceptive Trade Practices Act and the False Statement in Advertisement Act. The suit seeks to stop Palacios from doing business, and requests restitution for her clients.
The suit also accuses the couple of presenting Palacios as an attorney despite the fact that she is not licensed to practice law in Minnesota or anywhere else in the United States.
In an interview with Sahan Journal, Palacios blamed her company’s troubles on her former business partner, Raul Zepeda. She accused Zepeda of embezzling 9 million Mexican pesos, the equivalent of roughly $500,000, from her company.
Zepeda, however, denied the allegation and accused Palacios of overcharging her clients to fund a lavish lifestyle. Zepeda broke ties with Palacios in 2021.
“I don’t want anything to do with her,” Zepeda said in an interview last month. “I think she’s a dangerous person.”
Palacios, 34, was born in the United States, grew up in Mexico and returned in 2005. She owns several businesses, including Nueva Vision Multiservicios, a tax preparation service, and the restaurant, Mi Mexico Querido, in south Minneapolis.
The attorney general’s office asks anyone who believes they have been victimized by Palacios to file a complaint with the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office using this online complaint form, which is also available in Spanish. Clients can also call the office at 651-296-3353 or 1-800-657-3787. Spanish interpretation is available.
