Last Act for the Great Circus Smuggling Scheme

The curtain has fallen for a 70-year-old former acrobat who pled guilty to smuggling close to 900 illegal immigrants into the United States.  Kristo Ivanov of Bulgaria, a U.S. citizen, had been charged with "inducing aliens to enter the United States illegally and to making false statements in visa applications." "Ivanov admits to helping hundreds of illegal aliens into the United States under false pretenses so that he could benefit financially," said Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher. "We will not allow this type of exploitation of our immigration system, which poses a risk to the security of our nation." THE BLOTTER RECOMMENDS Blotter The Great Circus Smuggling Scheme Blotter Femme Fatale Seized in Russia-U.S. Smuggling Scheme Click Here to Check Out the Latest Brian Ross Webcast As "The Blotter" previously reported, the "great circus smuggling scheme" operated out of Orlando, Fla., according to authorities at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office there.  Ivanov, a former performer with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, ran the operation through his booking agency, Magic Star Entertainment, in Lake Mary, Fla. Ivanov admitted he personally aided 870 illegal immigrants to enter U.S. borders from 2001 to February 2006 under the guise of working for a Florida circus and charged each of them between $500 and $2,500 to prepare applications.  Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage. The bogus circus performers — most of whom found less glamorous jobs in construction, carpentry, housekeeping and unskilled labor — hailed from Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Russia.  Ivanov has agreed to hand over $600,000 he earned in smuggling fees to the United States.  Sentencing is scheduled for this March. "The U.S. passport and visa are two of the most coveted travel documents in the world, and foreign nationals who have acquired passports and visas fraudulently to enter the United States could perpetrate further illegal acts to include terrorism," said Joe D. Morton, Director of the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security.  "These crimes make the United States more vulnerable to terrorism, plain and simple."