The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has charged a Bay Area immigration lawyer and her law firm with securities fraud claiming that they funneled clients’ investments into properties that netted the lawyer and her husband more than $12 million in undisclosed commissions.

In a complaint filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the SEC claims that Jean D. Chen, the sole partner in immigration firm Law Offices of Jean D. Chen based in San Jose and San Francisco, secured commissions by directing her clients to purchase certain offerings under the federal EB-5 immigrant investor program. The program gives preferential immigration treatment to foreign investors who put their money into certain job-creating projects in the U.S.