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TWO
U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT EMPLOYEES AND McGregor W. Scott, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of California, and Michael Chertoff, Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, announced today that a federal grand jury in Sacramento returned an 18 count indictment charging nine persons, including two former State Department employees, in connection with an alleged corrupt scheme to sell visas to enter the United States that operated out of the U.S. Embassy in Sri Lanka. The indictment followed the execution of arrest warrants and search warrants that resulted in the arrests of eight of the nine defendants and searches at five locations in three states. According to a 130 page complaint unsealed in Sacramento yesterday, the scheme allegedly involved the payment of hundreds of thousands of dollars by persons in Sacramento and elsewhere to two married State Department employees between 2000 and 2003, in exchange for the issuance of visas to various foreign nationals, primarily from Vietnam and India. The complaint alleges that Acey R. Johnson, while working in the consular affairs section of the U.S. Embassy in Sri Lanka, issued visas to scores of persons pursuant to the scheme. The indictment charges all nine defendants with conspiring to defraud the United States and to bribe public officials and to commit visa fraud. The charged defendants are: Long N. Lee, 51, a State Department Foreign Service Officer and career State Department employee; Acey R. Johnson, 32, who is married to Long N. Lee and was until recently a Consular Associate employed in the consular section of the U.S. Embassy in Sri Lanka; Vinesh Prasad, 33, of Sacramento; his brother Minesh Prasad, 28, of Sacramento; Narinderjit Singh Bhullar, 40, of Sacramento; his brother Davinder Singh Bhullar, 44, of India; Phuong-Hien Lam Trinh, 35, of Torrance, California; Rajwant S. Virk, 46, of Herndon, Virginia; and Rachhpal Singh, 32, of Hayward, California. The indictment also charges some of the defendants with additional charges. The status of the defendants is as follows:
In addition to the conspiracy charged against all defendants, defendants Johnson, Lee and Vinesh and Minesh Prasad are each charged with ten counts of wire fraud, one count of mail fraud, and one count of bribery. Defendants Vinesh and Minesh Prasad, Narinderjit Singh Bhullar and his brother Davinder Singh Bhullar are charged with one count of visa fraud, and Narinderjit and Davinder Singh Bhullar are each charged with one count of wire fraud. Vinesh Prasad is further charged with one count of encouraging illegal entry of aliens for financial gain, and with two counts of money laundering. Finally, Narinderjit Singh Bhullar is charged with one count of money laundering. Each of the charges
in the indictment is a felony. The maximum sentence for the conspiracy
charge, and for each wire fraud, mail fraud, and money laundering charge
is five years in prison. The visa fraud and encouraging entry by aliens
charges each has a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, and the bribery
charge has a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison. Each count in the
indictment also carries a penalty of up to a three-year period of supervised
release, and a $250,000 fine. The indictment also seeks forfeiture of
various properties, bank accounts, and over $175,000 in cash seized
during searches on Tuesday. The United States
Attorney's Office noted that the complaint and indictment are only accusations,
and that the defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven
guilty.
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