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Two people from India, among several Indians who were indicted earlier in an elaborate marriage and visa fraud scheme, pleaded guilty last week in Jackson, Miss., facing up to ten years in prison.
Tarunkumar Purushottambhai Patel, 50, of Missouri and Sachin Patel, 33, of Mississippi, pleaded guilty to both marriage fraud and police report fraud Oct. 3, along with five others.
Seven other people from India were indicted in connection with the federal crime in May this year, and they are expected to plead guilty in the coming weeks, reports quoting law enforcement officials said.
According to an Associated Press report, in 2011 the men arranged four sham marriages between their friends and American women the two Patels, who are business acquaintances, had met. In 2014, Tarunkumar Patel began bribing a Mississippi police officer to create false crime reports in an effort to get immigration authorities to grant them special visas for victims of certain types of crimes.
The Patels, former Jackson officer Ivory Harris and lawyer Simpson Goodman, pleaded guilty, as did two of the men who benefited from the fake police reports. Like the Patels, Goodman faces up to 10 years in prison.
In 16 count U-Visa fraud indictment, it was alleged in May this year that law enforcement certification forms purporting to certify that aliens were victims of certain crimes, were submitted to the U.S. Customs and Immigration Service along with the U-Visa applications.
The AP report said that Tarunkumar Patel, who operates a store in Jackson, said that he arranged the first marriage when a friend identified as Virenda Rajput, came down from Massachusetts and met a woman who was a frequent customer of the store. ““My friend told me, ‘I want to marry her,’” Tarunkumar Patel was quoted as telling U.S. District Judge Henry T. Wingate. He wanted to get married to get permanent residency.
Sachin Patel likewise persuaded another woman with whom he had worked at an Indian restaurant to marry a friend in 2013. Two more marriages were arranged in 2014. The Patels said they paid the women money on behalf of their friends.
Goodman, a law school graduate and an acquaintance of Sachin Patel, did the paper work with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
“Immigration fraud poses a significant threat to national security by allowing individuals to enter or remain in the United States under false pretenses with unknown intentions,” Raymond R. Parmer Jr., special agent in charge of HIS, New Orleans had earlier said during the indictment in May.
The post Two From India Plead Guilty In Miss. To Marriage, Visa Fraud appeared first on News India Times.
