Colorado’s attorney general is seeking a court order to stop a Colorado Springs-based business from offering immigration and family legal services without being properly licensed, the office announced in a Thursday press release.

In a complaint filed Thursday morning, attorneys for the attorney general’s office alleged that One Connection LLC, advertised in court records as an “immigration lawyer” along with providing tax, divorce, and custody services, continued to offer legal services without being properly licensed and despite previously being ordered not to.

The office accused the business of several statute violations in the form of advertising and offering legal services without the approval of the Colorado Supreme Court, failing to obtain proper licenses to practice law, not informing customers they didn’t employ lawyers, and practicing immigration law without law licenses.

“Individuals must be licensed to practice law in the state of Colorado,” Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said in the release. “My office will hold accountable those who misrepresent their professional credentials and target and harm vulnerable communities.”

Owner Maseni Munguia did not immediately return a request for comment.

“We definitely have never had the intention of making ourselves pass as lawyers or anything as such,” Noely Diaz, identified in the complaint as employed at One Connection since 2020 and sharing duties there, said. “We’re just paralegals, and for the most part, we assist the Latino community with translation, not representation.”

Attorneys alleged in the complaint that Munguia admitted in testimony to providing legal services, including advising clients on green card filings, and that the business charged higher rates for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and other citizenship paperwork than she testified to investigators.

As part of their investigation, the office sent a Colorado Department of Law employee posing as someone who was undocumented and seeking to attain legal status to One Connection’s door for an appointment, according to the complaint.

Munguia advised the employee about different options to attain that status, adding she would “do everything” if the employee provided the necessary documents, the complaint stated.

Investigators said she quoted the employee at $1,500 for DACA paperwork despite saying at a different time the business charged $150.

The office is seeking injunctive relief in forms including a court order declaring a violation on the business’ behalf of Colorado statutes, penalties as high as $50,000 per violation of certain statutes, restitution, unjust enrichment, or other equitable relief to be determined at trial, and any other orders prohibiting the business from similar actions in the future.

The office noted in the release that Munguia and One Connection had previously practiced law without a license, pointing to a 2016 investigation by the state supreme court’s Office of Attorney Regulation on claims the business was authorized to prepare immigration, divorce, and bankruptcy forms for clients.

As a result of that investigation, according to the release, Munguia agreed not to engage in actions related to “unauthorized practice of law in Colorado.”

The office said in the complaint that Munguia had continued to do so “unabated.” They added the complaint was part of the Department of Law’s “greater effort to investigate and stop notario fraud,” according to the release.

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The office explained “notario fraud” as unlicensed legal practitioners known as “notarios” stepping in to promise Spanish-speaking communities the low-cost “help they need to tackle complex immigration, family, and legal matters.”

A review hearing in the case, court records indicate, will take place at the El Paso County courthouse March 17.

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