September 18, 2009

CANADIAN CHARLES THIVIERGE SENTENCED FOR MAKING FALSE STATEMENTS

The Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont announced that Charles Thivierge, 21, of Chateauguay, Quebec, was sentenced on September 16, 2009 in United States District Court in Rutland to time served following his guilty plea to a charge that he made false statements to immigration officials. U.S. District Judge J. Garvan Murtha also ordered that Thivierge serve a two-year term of supervised release.

According to court papers, Thivierge entered the United States through the Richford Port-of-Entry on July 30, 2008. During his immigration inspection, he falsely told the examining official that the purpose of his visit to the United States was to pick up a wakeboard at his mailbox in Plattsburgh, New York. In fact, the real reason Thivierge entered the country was because he had agreed to drive to North Carolina to pick up a bundle of cash and deliver it back to Canada. On August 1, 2008, a Border Patrol Agent stopped Thivierge in East Richford, just south of the Canadian border. A subsequent search of Thivierge’s car uncovered $43,350 in U.S. currency. This was money that Thivierge had been given in North Carolina. Thivierge told officials he believed the cash was drug money.

The seized cash has already been forfeited to the United States.

Thivierge is represented by Assistant Federal Public Defender Elizabeth Mann. The prosecutor is Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory Waples.