In a grueling seven-hour hearing Friday in Sacramento federal court, three attorneys were sentenced to prison for engineering a scheme that gained scores of immigrants asylum in the United States based on false documents.

Jagprit Singh Sekhon, 39, a partner with his brother in a now-defunct Sacramento firm that specialized in immigration law, was sentenced to nine years.

Jagdip Singh Sekhon, 42, who ran the San Francisco office of Sekhon & Sekhon, was sentenced to five years.

Manjit Kaur Rai, 33, an associate in the firm, was sentenced to 2 1/2 years.

U.S. District Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr. ordered the Sekhons taken into custody. He directed Rai to surrender Oct. 15, giving her time to arrange a move of her 5-year-old son to Canada, where he will live with her parents.

Luciana Harmath, 29, who worked for the firm as a Romanian interpreter, was sentenced in June to four months in prison.

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/09/25/3055410/three-attorneys-sentenced-to-prison.html#ixzz10XmanhZe