Watertown Man Sentenced for Citizenship Fraud

SYRACUSE, NEW YORK – Gurpreet Singh (37) of Watertown, New York, was sentenced today in federal court in Syracuse to three months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release, following a jury trial in January where he was convicted of knowingly obtaining U.S. citizenship through unlawful naturalization, announced Acting United States Attorney Grant C. Jaquith and James C. Spero, Special Agent in Charge, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Buffalo, New York.

Because of this conviction, Singh’s U.S. citizenship will be revoked by law.

The trial evidence showed that Singh, who is originally from India, repeatedly affirmed to United States Citizenship and Immigration (USCIS) authorities that he had not committed any crimes for which he was not arrested. Immigration authorities later learned that the defendant sexually abused a 9-year-old child during the same time-period he was applying for U.S. citizenship. Evidence presented at trial demonstrated that Singh deliberately failed to report his criminal activity to USCIS because he knew that USCIS would not have approved his naturalization application if the agency had known about his crimes. Singh pled guilty in New York state court to a single count of sexual abuse of a minor child, after he had become a naturalized U.S. citizen. Singh was arrested by the City of Watertown (New York) Police Department the day after his naturalization ceremony in April 2012.

While on supervised release following his prison term, Singh will be required to register as a sex offender and will be prohibited from having direct contact with children under the age of 18 (other than his own) and from going to places where children under 18 are likely to congregate, such as parks, libraries, and schools, without prior permission of a probation officer.

This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the City of Watertown Police Department, and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael F. Perry and Robert S. Levine.