Illegal Alien Sentenced To Prison For Conspiracy To Bribe An Immigration Official

Baltimore, Maryland – U.S. District Judge William D. Quarles, Jr. sentenced Amjad Israr, age 46, a Pakistani citizen living in Cheshire, Connecticut, today to 15 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, after Israr pleaded guilty to conspiring to bribe an immigration official in order to obtain lawful permanent residence (green card) and employment authorization documents.

The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge William Winter of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); District Director Gregory Collett of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Baltimore District Office; and Chief James W. Johnson of the Baltimore County Police Department.

According to his plea agreement, Israr operated multiple convenience stores in Connecticut, called Krauszer’s. Israr entered the United States in 1994 using another person’s Pakistani passport that he had purchased in Pakistan and has no legal immigration status in the United States.

Beginning in December 2011, Israr began working with a Maryland attorney who told Israr that he knew an immigration official who was willing, in return for payments of money, to provide immigration documents, which would permit Israr to legally live and work in the United States. Unbeknownst to the attorney and Israr, the attorney’s immigration contact was actually an undercover agent posing as a public official.

Israr agreed to pay the attorney approximately $30,000 for the immigration documents, knowing that a substantial portion of the payment would be provided to the purported USCIS official in exchange for the immigration documents. Israr and the attorney met with the undercover agent on August 25, 2011. During the meeting, Israr’s fingerprints and photos were taken by the undercover agent in order to prepare the immigration documents for Israr. On one of the immigration forms later submitted to the undercover agent by the attorney, Israr falsely represented that he was married to a U.S. citizen, and the wife’s name and personal identification information provided on the form were all fake. In January 2012, Israr received a green card issued by the undercover agent, which he used to enter the United States on February 4, April 12 and July 17, 2012.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein praised HSI Baltimore, USCIS Baltimore District Office and the Baltimore County Police Department for their work in the investigation. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant United States Attorneys Harry M. Gruber and Gregory R. Bockin, who are prosecuting the case.