Tarunkumar and Sachin Patel wanted to find a way so that more of their friends and business associates from India could get permanent legal status to remain in the United States. But they admitted Monday their plans were federal crimes.
Now they and up to 17 others face prison time.
The men said that in 2011 they arranged four sham marriages between their friends and American women the two Patels had met. The two are business acquaintances. Then in 2014, Tarunkumar Patel said he began bribing a Mississippi police officer to create false crime reports in an effort to get immigration authorities to grant them special visas for victims of certain types of crimes.
The Patels, former Jackson officer Ivory Harris and lawyer Simpson Goodman pleaded guilty Monday in federal court in Jackson to conspiracy charges, as did two of the men who benefited from the fake police reports. The Patels and Goodman face up to 10 years in prison, having pleaded guilty to both marriage fraud and the police report fraud.
A seventh defendant pleaded guilty Friday, and more guilty pleas from others in the scheme are scheduled this month. Nineteen people were indicted in two linked cases in April.
The 50-year-old Tarunkumar Patel, who operates a store in a poor area of Jackson, said he arranged the first marriage when a friend came down from Massachusetts. That friend, Virenda Rajput, met a woman who was a frequent customer of the store.
“My friend told me, ‘I want to marry her,'” Tarunkumar Patel told U.S. District Judge Henry T. Wingate.
And they did. The woman took Rajput’s name, becoming Javona Shanice Rajput. But Virenda Rajput returned to his own job in Massachusetts, coming back to Jackson only once every two or three months.
“They were married just for the convenience of getting the citizenship,” said Patel’s lawyer, Ross Barnett Jr. “That was the No. 1 purpose.”
Sachin Patel persuaded another woman with whom he had worked at an Indian restaurant to marry a friend in 2013, and two more marriages were arranged in 2014.
The Patels said they paid the women money on behalf of their friends, although not very large sums. Tarunkumar Patel said the most he ever gave Javona Rajput at one time was $300.
Tarunkumar Patel was also the prime mover in the fake police reports, approaching Harris, who visited the store often as part of his beat.
Harris said Patel paid him $500 per report at first. “Then one time, when I had questions about it, he told me, ‘Don’t worry about it,’ and gave me $1,000,” Harris said. He the reports usually claimed the people had been assaulted or robbed at gunpoint.
“In fact, these noncitizen Indians were not victims of crime in Jackson, Mississippi,” Assistant U.S. Attorney David Fulcher said.
Doing the paperwork with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services was Goodman, an acquaintance of Sachin Patel. A 2012 law school graduate, Goodman said he was spiraling into abuse of the stimulant Adderall and marijuana. More recently, Goodman said he has been treated for drug abuse, hospitalized once for suicidal thoughts and a second time after attempting suicide.
Goodman said he stopped representing Virenda Rajput in his immigration application, but continued representing two others. The Patels provided him with documents meant to bolster the claim, such as joint bank account statements, life insurance statements and apartment leases. He said the applications were never completed, with the efforts essentially abandoned before Citizenship and Immigration Services would have interviewed the people.
“I continued to represent these clients before USCIS once I understood the marriages were not 100 percent for love,” Goodman said.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
Gather them all up and send their dumb asses back. Don’t put them in the American prison system, that means we are still supporting them. As a military veteran, it really bothers me that foreign jerks get better treatment than veterans that are living on the streets and no medical assistance. So if the current government cant and wont do anything about it, then put someone like Donald Trump in there and that way America can and will be Great Again!!!
Amen to you my friend!! And THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH FOR YOUR SERVICE TO OUR COUNTRY! My Son is a Marine ! And i agree 100% what you said! WE NEED TRUMP TO BE OUR NEXT PRESIDENT! GOD BLESS YOU AND THE USA! Oorah!
We will need more than a God to bless us ? He’s done a pretty poor job of doing that despite all your prayers ? as a former Marine I have seen both GOOD & EVIL , NONE were caused by gods or devils !They all were caused by mankind ! If there IS really Gods & devils They are sorely lacking in the ability to find out who is greater ! Hence I tend to believe that NEITHER exist & that Mankind is the true Good & evill here on earth , There are no Gods OR devils ? ONLY the evil & good in Mankind !The Human race needs to stop believing in GODS & DEVILS ! , & Blame themselves 4 the evil & the good !
AS A FORMER MARINE AND A POW!!!!!! I AGREE 100%
WE TREAT FOREIGNER BETTER THEN OUR VET. WE
NEED SOMEONE WITH BALLS THAT CAN SAY NO ONCE IN A WHILE. A MAN LIKE “DONALD TRUMP”
You are on target. Thank You for your service for our country, the great USA.
How is a wall going to stop illegals from India? Don’t they come by plane?? In addition to the wall we need a visa tracking system, I don’t know how though, maybe location ankle braclets?? My little mind can’t figure out a way.
Even flying into America, you have to go thru customs, show a passport. Maybe we need some device that scans the iris of the eye.
Do you see any connection to the principle of obeying the law no matter how the hell you arrive in this country?
Simple,,, it’s put in the BAR CODE on their Visa I.D.’s…all the information needed to properly identify the carrier of such Card. IF the information doesn’t match. Send them back. All offenders should be held in jail, until passage to their homeland, is arranged. then put on a slow boat, with bare minimum of travel essentials , & conditions. So that they don’t enjoy the trip to much… after a few months on a working ship, as a working passenger, to pay their way home & for the trip. Then they won’t be as fast to visit our Great Nation illegally… instead of giving them $ 10 G’s , and a business free…
Amen to you my friend!! And THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH FOR YOUR SERVICE TO OUR COUNTRY! My Son is a Marine ! And i agree 100% what you said! WE NEED TRUMP TO BE OUR NEXT PRESIDENT! GOD BLESS YOU AND THE USA! Oorah!
The WALL is 4 the ILLEGALS poring across our Mexican border !
dab, obviously you have listened and investigated some of Trump’s plans for immigration but probably not learned about anything but the wall. Yes, he has said “build the wall” and that will be the first action. The WALL is not just for Mexicans and will not have a sign that says those not from mexico may enter. It will be designed to stop ALL illegal immigration, including ISIS and drug dealers. He has also said he will track those coming into the country on visas including tourist and student to confirm that they are not overstaying. He will deport those that have committed crimes. Just the threat of the US actually ENFORCING some of their immigration laws will keep many people from even trying to commit fraud because they know there will be consequences if caught and the chance of getting caught will be great.