THE federal court has sentenced Halim Khan to two years’ probation. In March 2022, a jury found him guilty of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. for his involvement in a CW-1 visa scheme.
At a sentencing hearing on March 10, 2023, Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona of the District Court for the NMI also ordered Khan to pay a special assessment fee of $100 immediately after sentencing.
“The defendant must perform 50 hours of community service,” the judge added.
Khan’s co-defendants, Servillana Soriano, Aminul Islam, and Faroque Hosen, were also charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud the U.S.
Islam was sentenced by the federal court on Feb. 16, 2022 to one week of imprisonment and one year of supervised release. He was also ordered to perform 25 hours of community service, and pay a $100 assessment fee.
On April 12, 2022, Hosen was sentenced to two years’ probation. In addition, he shall perform 25 hours of community service and pay a $100 assessment fee.
Soriano, for her part, has appealed her conviction and sentence.
Soriano, 61, filed the notice of appeal following her sentencing on Sept. 9, 2022.
Judge Manglona sentenced Soriano to one month in prison for one count of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government.
Soriano would also be placed on seven months’ home detention as part of her probation, and three years of supervised release.
According to the second superseding indictment filed in 2020, Soriano, with three others agreed, to defraud the United States “by deceitful and dishonest means, for the purpose of impeding, impairing, obstructing, and defeating the lawful government functions of a government agency, namely, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services or USCIS, in the fair and objective evaluation of applications for CW-1 non-immigrant visa.”
It was part of the conspiracy that RES International LLC, a manpower agency owned by Soriano, “would, in exchange for money, submit a petition for CW-1 classification that would falsely and fraudulently represent that an employer-employee relationship would exist between RES and the beneficiaries under the employment terms set forth in the petition.”
The United States Courthouse in Gualo Rai, Saipan.
