AFTER three hours of deliberation on Monday, a jury found Halim Khan guilty of involvement in a CW-1 visa scheme.
Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona of the District Court for the NMI directed the court clerk to file the verdict and scheduled Khan’s sentencing for Aug. 5 at 9 a.m.
Khan will remain out of custody but must abide by the previously imposed terms and conditions.
Attorneys Bruce Berline and Joey San Nicolas represented Khan whose jury trial began on March 22. Senior investigator Jeremy Wolfe and Rippon Ahmed, an interpreter, also formed part of the defense team.
Khan was charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States.
In his closing argument, Berline told the jury that it was the prosecution’s obligation to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Khan willfully — intentionally and willingly — participated in an unlawful plan with the intent to defraud U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
“To that point, the government has failed — completely and utterly failed,” Berline said.
“The government wants you to believe that Khan or someone backdated the document [used for the visa petition]. It wants you to do this without one iota, one tidbit of evidence. If you look back, the word ‘backdated’ was never uttered once in these whole proceedings. It doesn’t make sense. If the dates don’t fit you just acquit.”
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Garth Backe and Albert Flores Jr. prosecuted the case.
Khan’s 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 filed in 2020, Soriano with three others agreed to defraud the U.S. 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 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 stated.
Islam and Hosen have both pled guilty to the charge.
Islam was sentenced by the federal court to serve one week of imprisonment, one year of supervised release and 25 hours of community service. He was also ordered to pay a $100 assessment fee.
Hosen’s sentencing has been moved to April 4, 2022 at 1:30 p.m.
As for Servillana Soriano, a jury found her guilty last year, and she will be sentenced on May 3, 2022 at 9 a.m.
Halim Khan leaves the federal courthouse with defense counsels Bruce Berline and Joey San Nicolas and senior investigator Jeremy Wolfe Monday morning.
