Guilty Plea Entered In Immigration Case With Manchester Ties

MANCHESTER, CT — A guilty plea has been entered in a federal immigration case that was investigated, in part, by Manchester police.

Leonard C. Boyle, acting United States attorney for the District of Connecticut, said that 42-year-old Las Vegas, NV, resident Arash Vakhshouri pleaded guilty Tuesday to submitting false documents to a government agency.

The case was investigated by the federal Homeland Security Investigations department, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Manchester Police Department, Boyle said.

Pursuant to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), the court proceeding before U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton occurred via videoconference.

According to court documents and statements made in court, between January and May 2017, Vakhshouri drafted and sent seven fraudulent letters to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in Connecticut purporting to be from two people who had applied to USCIS to become legal residents of the U.S. in March 2016.

The letters, which included the victims' names, passport numbers, application numbers and alien file numbers, fraudulently requested the withdrawal or cancellation of the victims’ applications for legal permanent resident status in the U.S., Boyle said.

Vakhshouri was arrested on June 20, 2019.

Judge Arterton scheduled sentencing for August 31, 2021, at which time Vakhshouri faces a maximum term of imprisonment of five years.

Vakhshouri is released on a $50,000 bond pending sentencing.