THE jury trial of Halim Khan is scheduled to begin on March 15 at 10 a.m.
At the pretrial conference on Feb. 22, Assistant U.S. Attorney Garth Backe told the federal court that the prosecution will need a Bengali interpreter for one of the witnesses.
Khan’s attorney, Bruce Berline, for his part, said they will submit a request for an interpreter if needed. Berline appeared in court via videoconference.
Khan was charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States.
His co-defendants — Servillana Soriano, Aminul Islam, and Faroque Hosen — were also charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud the U.S.
According to the second superseding indictment, 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 a CW-1 non-immigrant visa.
“It was part of the conspiracy that RES International LLC 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 indictment added.
Islam and Hosen have both pled guilty to the charge.
On Feb. 16, Islam was sentenced by Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona of the District Court for the NMI to serve 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.
Hosen’s sentencing is scheduled for March 11 at 9 a.m.
As for Soriano, a jury found her guilty last year, and her sentencing is scheduled for March 22 at 9 a.m.
