Posted on 03/24/2008 6:12:20 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
A Milwaukee businessman has complained to the Indian Embassy in Washington, D.C., about what he claims is a passport-selling scheme involving individuals at the Indian consulate in Chicago.
Amrit N. Patel, who owns a local accounting firm and is president of the India Cultural Society, outlined the suspected scheme in a letter to Indian Ambassador Ronen Sen last March.
Milwaukee has a large Punjabi community, many members of which have come here with political asylum, which does not make them eligible for an Indian passport, he said in the letter.
But over the last two years, Patel said, the Chicago consulate has issued Indian passports to them through a mediator in New York, whom he identified as Rajubhaiya or Raju.
Patel listed the names of six people who, he said, had paid from $3,000 to $3,500 to get a passport. He also included copies of permanent resident cards, immigration forms and approved asylum applications.
He described the suspected scheme this way:
An Indian here with political asylum who had a green card and wanted to go to India for a visit would send Raju $200 with two photos. A phony green card was then prepared, changing the "asylum" category to something else, and a copy of that form would be made.
An interview would then be set up at the Consulate in Chicago with Raju, the person and the fake papers. A passport would then be issued.
High prices charged
Raju charged from $3,000 to $3,500 per passport, and part of the money would be distributed to those at the consulate involved in the scheme, Patel alleged.
Patel said that he's concerned that people were victimized. In addition to those listed in the letter who he says lost money in the venture, he said he knows of others who have been ensnared in the procedure.
In the letter to the Indian Embassy, he asked for an investigation into what he described as a "bribe going on in the consulate office in Chicago."
Calls to the consulate in Chicago and the Indian Embassy in Washington were not returned.
A call to the number Patel listed as belonging to Raju was not answered; a recorded message said the mailbox was full.
Patel said he's disappointed with the lack of results his letter elicited. A few months after he wrote the letter, he said, someone from the embassy was sent here to investigate. "More than eight people showed up and had the same complaint, but he said he needed more information. He did nothing. He could have gotten the information."
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Chicago would neither confirm nor deny the existence of an ongoing investigation into the matter, spokeswoman Gail Montenegro said.
"Any type of identity or document fraud represents a national security vulnerability and is of great concern to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement," she said. "ICE aggressively investigates those individuals or organizations who commit such fraud."
In April, the immigration office in Chicago created a document and benefit fraud task force to combat the threat posed by criminal organizations that profit from the manufacture and sale of counterfeit identity documents, she said.
I would bet they were Indians who enjoyed eating beef.
Good one!!! LOL
BTW, the first bioterror attack in this country was plotted by Indians.
Bartenders and bouncers on the other hand....;)
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