FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
RANJEET SINGH SENTENCED IN U.S. DISTRICT COURT
Bill Mercer, United States Attorney for the District of Montana, announced today that during a federal court session in Great Falls, on October 17, 2007, before U.S. District Judge Sam E. Haddon, RANJEET SINGH, a 30-year-old citizen of India and Manchester, England, appeared for sentencing. SINGH was sentenced to a term of:
- Prison: 38 months
- Special Assessment: $300
- Supervised Release: 3 years
SINGH was sentenced after having been found guilty during a 2-day trial of visa fraud, aggravated identity theft and identification fraud/document production.
At trial, the government presented evidence of the following:
On December 2, 2006, at approximately 8:30 p.m., SINGH, a citizen of India, applied for entry into the United States at the Port of Sweetgrass, between Calgary, Alberta, and Great Falls. He presented his resident alien card with class of admission based upon marriage to a citizen of the United States, but was with a woman identified as his Canadian girlfriend. SINGH stated that he resides in England where he is a student. In secondary inspection, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers searched the vehicle and found a wedding dress, but more importantly, in luggage found a paper copy of an altered Resident Alien Card of another person, letters of apparent acceptance of other persons to universities in England, and apparent bank statements of other persons. CBP officers opened SINGH'S computer and discovered hundreds more documents as found in the vehicle, including: two computer templates for resident alien cards; complete alteration of the biographical page of SINGH's Indian passport and his British residence permit into a new identity; I.R.S. income tax returns in the names as seen on the false resident alien card templates; more templates for university acceptance letters; and affidavits referencing these documents in support of visa applications to the United Kingdom. CBP officers called agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The responding ICE agent obtained incriminating statements from SINGH. SINGH admitted to owning the computer in the vehicle, and that he had made a few sets of fraudulent documents for subjects. The sets of documents included fraudulent green cards (resident alien cards), false bank statements, false Internal Revenue Service (IRS) forms, and fraudulent letters of acceptance to universities in England. The sets of documents were sold to subjects to submit to British High Commissions around the world to support applications for immigration entry and status as students in the United Kingdom. E-mails stored in SINGH'S computer indicated he charged a fee up to £ 2250 (approximately U.S. $4,500) per set. SINGH later admitted to producing the fraudulent acceptance letters for approximately a year and a half, and that he had created an unknown quantity.
SINGH had also on his computer scanned copies of his Indian passport and British residence permit (visa) in his computer and applied another name to them. He told ICE he had erased his name from the passport and visa because he had planned to use the false identity to obtain an international driving license.
SINGH faces possible penalties of 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and 3 years supervised release for visa fraud and identification/document production. In addition, SINGH faces an additional mandatory two year imprisonment, consecutive to any other sentence, for aggravated identity theft for use of a real alien number on the false resident alien cards submitted to the British High Commission overseas.
Because there is no parole in the federal system, the "truth in sentencing" guidelines mandate that SINGH will likely serve all of the time imposed by the court. In the federal system, SINGH does have the opportunity to earn a sentence reduction for "good behavior." However, this reduction will not exceed 15% of the overall sentence.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth A. Horsman prosecuted the case for the United States.
The investigation was conducted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection at the Port of Sweetgrass and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Great Falls Resident Agency. The United States received outstanding cooperation from the British Consulate in New York City, the British Embassy Prosecution Liaison in Washington, D.C., and the British High Commissions in Pakistan and Ghana.
This conviction is a direct result of the District of Montana's multi-agency Border Policy Initiative in place since mid-2002. This initiative combines inspection requirements at the ports of entry with direct immediate access to an Assistant U.S. Attorney, and prompt ICE and FBI border response.
