A US Navy Reserve officer was sentenced to greater than two years in jail on Monday for his position in a years-long bribery scheme involving Particular Immigrant Visas (SIVs) for Afghan residents.
Cmdr. Jeromy Pittmann, 53, of Pensacola, Florida, accepted bribes from Afghan nationals in change for drafting, submitting and verifying fraudulent letters of advice for Afghan residents who utilized for SIVs with the State Division.
He obtained 30 months in jail, the Justice Division stated.
He initially confronted 45 years in jail.
Fox Information Digital has reached out to the State Division and US Navy Reserve.
Pittmann served as a civil engineer corps officer who deployed to Afghanistan with NATO Particular Operations Command.
The State Division gives a restricted variety of SIVs to enter america.
Pittman signed greater than 20 letters stating he knew and supervised Afghan nationwide candidates whereas they labored as translators in help of the US army and NATO.
The letters represented that the candidates’ lives had been at risk as a result of the Taliban thought-about them to be traitors and that Pittmann believed they didn’t pose any risk to the US nationwide safety, federal prosecutors stated.
“In reality, Pittmann didn’t know the candidates and had no foundation for recommending them for SIVs,” the Justice Division stated.
“In change for the fraudulent letters, Pittmann obtained a number of 1000’s of {dollars} in bribes.”
To keep away from detection, Pittmann obtained the bribe cash via an middleman and created false invoices displaying that he was receiving the funds for official work unrelated to his army service, authorities stated.
Robert P. Storch, an inspector with the Division of Protection, stated Pittmann “compromised the integrity of the Afghan SIV system.”
The SIV system has come below scrutiny after an Afghan man residing in Oklahoma was charged earlier this month with allegedly plotting a terror assault on Election Day on behalf of the Islamic State terror group.
Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, labored for the Central Intelligence Company (CIA) as a safety guard in Afghanistan earlier than coming into america in 2021 on a SIV.
Authorities imagine he turned radicalized after he arrived within the US Tawhedi and a juvenile co-conspirator have been charged in reference to the plot.
Senate Committee on Homeland Safety & Governmental Affairs Rating Member Rand Paul, R-Ky., led a number of different Republicans in demanding solutions from the Biden-Harris administration associated to the plot and the admission of Afghans into the US.
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