U.S. District Judge Marvin J. Garbis sentenced Mohammad Akhtar, age 52, today to 33 months in prison for racketeering conspiracy related to a scheme to bribe officials with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to illegally obtain green cards and the Maryland Comptroller's Office to receive abatement of state taxes, according to a report obtained by the National Association of Chiefs of Police's Fraud Committee.

Akhtar is a Pakistani national illegally residing in Jersey City, New Jersey.

According to the plea agreement, in January 2005, Mohammad Riaz Gujjar, an associate of Akhtar who owned and operated convenience store/gas stations in Snow Hill, Maryland sought to have a cooperating witness assist with the payment of bribes to abate $788,000 in Maryland sales and use taxes assessed against the convenience store/gas stations and to fraudulently obtain green cards for associates.

The cooperating witness held himself out to be involved in large-scale international drug trafficking and international smuggling of counterfeit cigarettes, but was acting at the direction of federal law enforcement.

On May 11, 2005, Gujjar and the cooperating witness traveled to New York to meet with Akhtar, whom Gujjar had indicated could help the cooperating witness get money out of the country. During their meeting, the cooperating witness indicated that all of his monies were from illegitimate sources. Akhtar and another individual agreed to transfer the cooperating witness's monies outside the United States through the "hawala" system of money transfer.

To read more follow this link:
http://www.examiner.com/x-2684-Law-E...in-green-cards