Press Release
Las Vegas Man Pleads Guilty to Submitting False Documents to USCIS
For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Connecticut
Leonard C Boyle, Acting United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that ARASH VAKHSHOURI, 42, of Las Vegas, Nevada, pleaded guilty today to submitting false documents to a government agency.
Pursuant to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), the court proceeding before U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton occurred via videoconference.
According to court documents and statements made in court, between January and May 2017, Vakhshouri drafted and sent a total of seven fraudulent letters to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in Connecticut purporting to be from two individuals who had applied to USCIS to become legal residents of the U.S. in March 2016. The letters, which included the victims’ names, passport numbers, application numbers and alien file numbers, fraudulently requested the withdrawal or cancellation of the victims’ applications for legal permanent resident status in the U.S.
Vakhshouri was arrested on June 20, 2019.
Judge Arterton scheduled sentencing for August 31, 2021, at which time Vakhshouri faces a maximum term of imprisonment of five years.
Vakhshouri is released on a $50,000 bond pending sentencing.
This matter has been investigated by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Manchester Police Department. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nathaniel J. Gentile and Conor M. Reardon.
Updated June 8, 2021
Component