A federal appeals court ruled yesterday that substantial portions of an investigative report that accuses a former top government immigration lawyer of exercising "improper influence" in the granting of visas to foreign investors must be made public.

The ruling, issued in New York City by a three-judge panel of the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, said there was "a substantial amount of evidence" against Paul W. Virtue, the former general counsel of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. The report was completed by the agency's inspector general in 1999, the same year Virtue resigned after a 16-year career.

"The public's interest in disclosure of the report substantially outweighs Virtue's interest in keeping the information private," the 13-page ruling said.

The inquiry focused on allegations that Virtue, now an attorney in private practice in Washington, gave preferential treatment to former INS officials marketing an investor visa program to foreign residents.

Under the program, created by Congress in 1990, foreigners can obtain permanent U.S. residency by investing $500,000 to $1 million in U.S. enterprises. As The Sun reported two years ago, several companies with ties to former INS officials were quickly formed to market the visa program.

The ruling came in a suit brought by Steven E. Perlman, a New York immigration lawyer, who has been critical of the administration of the investor visa program.

Critics say that under many of the favored investment visa programs, aliens invested only $100,000 in U.S. businesses, rather than the required amount. They claimed they were borrowing the rest, but in some cases, there was no evidence of any loans.

After the practice was discovered, the INS required investors to make the full payment within two years.

Noting Virtue's role in assisting companies marketing visa programs, the appeals court said, "The degree of wrongdoing alleged is fairly serious, as Virtue's approval of the limited partnership proposals touted by the visa investment companies may have allowed aliens to improperly come to the United States.

"Both the amount of evidence and degree of wrongdoing alleged weigh in favor of disclosure."

Government lawyers had argued that much of the investigative file was protected under exemptions to the federal Freedom of Information Act and that, in any case, Virtue's personal privacy rights outweighed the right of the public to view the files.

"Virtue ... stands on different ground," the ruling said, "because of his status as former INS general counsel and the role he played in administering the [investor visa] program.

As The Sun reported earlier this year, a two-page summary of the inspector general's report stated that "Virtue repeatedly assisted these questionable investment partnerships to obtain investment visas for their clients."

"Specifically," the summary said, "we found that Virtue made a series of suspect decisions that directly benefited these investment partnerships."