A number of Afghans allegedly paid bribes to a Commander in the United States Navy Reserves in the hopes of securing Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) to the U.S. as part of President Joe Biden’s ongoing resettlement operation out of Afghanistan, federal prosecutors allege.
Late last week, the Justice Department announced bribery and visa fraud charges against 53-year-old Navy Reserves Commander Jeromy Pittmann of Pensacola, Florida.
According to the charges, Pittmann — who now resides in Naples, Italy — was paid by Afghans to write up and submit fake recommendation letters for SIVs to the U.S. The more than 20 letters falsely claimed that the Afghans had worked as translators for the U.S. Armed Forces in Afghanistan.
Pittmann, in the letters, prosecutors allege, claimed that he oversaw and worked with the Afghans he wrote the fraudulent letters for, that their lives were in jeopardy because they would be targets for the Taliban, and that they were not national security risks.
In reality, the Afghans seeking the SIVs had not worked for the U.S. Armed Forces.
Pittmann, prosecutors claim, got thousands in payments from the Afghans in return for his vouching for their SIV applications. He is now facing up to 20 years in federal prison.
The bribes-for-visa scheme is only the latest scandal with Biden’s Afghan resettlement operation, which has received corporate backing along the way as well as support from Republicans and Democrats.
To date, Biden has resettled more than 85,000 Afghans in American communities across 46 states since mid-August 2021. That resettlement failed to properly vet Afghans against counter-terrorism databases, the Department of Defense’s Inspector General revealed last month.
As of November 2021, the report states 50 Afghans already in the U.S. have been flagged for “significant security concerns.” Most of the unvetted Afghans flagged for possible terrorism ties have since disappeared in the U.S. In one instance, only three of 31 Afghans flagged months ago for security concerns could be located.
Despite the vetting failures, Biden is continuing to bring Afghans to the U.S. at least through August. Currently, some 100,000 Afghans are seeking U.S. entry but remain in Afghanistan.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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