Trump admin continues to crack down on fraudulent visa schemes

By Bethany Blankley
The Center Square

The Trump administration is continuing to crack down on fraudulent visa schemes that are occurring nationwide.

In New Jersey, a Korean man pleaded guilty to fraudulently using a B-1/B-2 visa program in a forced labor and charity fraud scheme. The visas are for business or tourism and prohibit visa holders from working in the U.S.

In this case, Hyung Ki Kim and coconspirators were involved in a 13-year conspiracy to bring South Koreans to the U.S. through “fraudulently obtained visas as part of an unlawful work scheme,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey.

According to court documents, Kim, who served as the director of Englewood Cliffs-based International Leadership Training Program, used the ILTP to recruit South Korean youth involved with the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (Unification Church) founded by Sun Myung Moon. The visa applications included false and misleading statements and once those who obtained them were in the U.S., they were required to travel and “fundraise” for ILTP. The conditions involved them “living in a van with three or four other people,” working “until they met their monetary goal during fundraising cycles that lasted several months” and receiving roughly $100 per month and $25 a day to cover their meals, investigators found.

Instead of the donations being used for charity, more than $1 million was diverted to Kim’s personal bank accounts, investigators found. He also didn’t declare the money as income or pay taxes on it. He pleaded guilty to visa fraud, encouraging and inducing foreign nationals to enter and reside in the U.S., and tax fraud. He was required to pay nearly $900,000 in restitution and forfeit more than $1.2 million. His sentencing is scheduled for August.

In Missouri, a Nigerian national, Mercy Ojedeji, was sentenced to three years in prison for student visa fraud that was used to perpetrate a Nigerian romance fraud, “money mule” scheme and wire fraud, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri. He pleaded guilty to using counterfeit academic transcripts and other information to obtain a student visa from the University of Missouri. He also obtained a taxpayer-funded stipend and tuition waiver worth more than $49,000. He used his fraudulently obtained student visa to obtain a Social Security card, which was used to fraudulently open a bank account, rent an apartment and obtain a driver’s license.

An investigation was launched after the U.S. Postal Inspection Service received complaints that romance fraud victims had mailed nearly 200 packages containing cash and gift cards to Ojedeji’s paramour’s home. Total losses were estimated to be more than $1 million, authorities found. His paramour was sentenced to 93 months in prison.

In Texas, two Pakistani men, Abdul Hadi Murshid and Muhammad Salman Nasir, the Law Offices of D. Robert Jones PLLC, and Reliable Ventures, Inc., face charges of seeking to defraud the EB-2, EB-3 and H-1B visa programs.

They were charged with conspiracy to commit visa fraud, money laundering, racketeering and conspiracy to defraud the United States. Murshid and Nasir were also charged with unlawfully obtaining and attempting to obtain United States citizenship, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas.

According to the indictment, Murshid and Nasir submitted false and fraudulent visa applications for foreign nationals to illegally enter the U.S. They also placed classified advertisements in news publications for non-existent jobs, according to the indictment. This was done to satisfy a Department of Labor requirement that U.S. citizens be offered jobs before foreign nationals are hired, according to the complaint.

Once they received fraudulently obtained DOL certifications, they filed petitions with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to obtain the visas and applied for green cards, the complaint alleges. In order to make the non-existent jobs look legitimate, they had the foreign nationals pay them and use a portion of the money to fund a fake payroll, the complaint alleges.

In New York, Afghan national Dilbar Gul Taj Ali Khan, was arrested and charged with defrauding a State Department Special Immigrant Visa program. The department historically issued a limited supply to Afghan nationals who assisted the U.S. military.

In 2024, Khan obtained the visa from the Biden administration using a counterfeit U.S. Embassy Kabul approval letter and fake employment and recommendation letters, according to the charges. Had he been properly vetted, authorities would have learned that he had applied to the U.S. Embassy in Kabul in 2016 for the visa, which was rejected.

Investigators found that in his 2021 application, his employment verification letter was issued by a U.S.-based company “engaged in a large-scale scheme to provide fraudulent documents, such as employment verification letters, in exchange for a fee. All employment verification letters authored by this entity are fraudulent.” The letter of recommendation also came “from an individual involved in an ‘advance-fee’ scam, which sells fraudulent immigration documents,” according to the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of New York.

Despite this, Khan was granted the visa, admitted to the U.S. and issued a green card. Now he is being prosecuted and will eventually be processed for removal.

These examples are in addition to foreign nationals being charged with agricultural visa schemes in Washington state, Florida, North Carolina and Virginia, The Center Square reported.