Mohammed Mohedul Islam, a Bangladeshi who has lived on Saipan for 20 years, was slapped with a 24-month probation sentence in federal court on Friday for lying to federal authorities as part of a marriage scam in order to obtain lawful permanent resident status.<\/p>\n
U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona ordered the 41-year-old Islam to be delivered to an immigration official for deportation.<\/p>\n
Manglona required Islam to perform 50 hours of community service and pay a $100 special assessment fee, among other conditions.<\/p>\n
The judge granted assistant U.S. attorney Ross Naughton\u2019s motion to dismiss the remaining five charges against Islam.<\/p>\n
Naughton recommended a sentence of 24 months of probation, which is the low end of the sentencing guidelines. <\/p>\n
Attorney Colin Thompson, court-appointed counsel for Islam, recommended the same, saying his client had accepted responsibility, has lived on the island for 20 years as a good citizen without any criminal activity.<\/p>\n
Thompson said Islam will return to Bangladesh for medical reasons.<\/p>\n
On Nov. 29, 2013, Islam pleaded guilty to a count of false statement to a U.S. government agency, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.<\/p>\n
According to the plea agreement, on Aug. 10, 2009, Islam caused his then-spouse J.A.C. to state in her I-130 form \u201cJapan Drive, Saipan, MP96950\u201d as their last address when in fact they have never lived together and never lived in any house on Japan Drive. <\/p>\n
Form I-130 refers to a U.S. citizen\u2019s petition for an alien relative.<\/p>\n
Last year, federal agents arrested Islam after the U.S. government indicted him with one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, three counts of false statement to a government agency, one count of concealment of material fact, and one count of false statement on an immigration document.<\/p>\n
According to the indictment, Islam and others would persuade officials of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services that defendant and J.A.C. were living together in a legitimate marriage when in fact they were not. <\/p>\n
In November 2006, in preparation for his submission of immigration paperwork to USCIS and to make his marriage appear legitimate, Islam opened a joint bank account with J.A.C. at the Bank of Guam to generate evidence of joint ownership of property.<\/p>\n
In April 2009, Islam signed a lease agreement for an apartment in Gualo Rai. The agreement named Islam and J.A.C. as tenants to generate evidence of a joint marital residence. <\/p>\n
In August 2009, the two signed a rental agreement for a mailbox at Pacific Quick Print & Post.<\/p>\n
In November 2009, Islam caused J.A.C.\u2019s grandmother to sign an affidavit wherein the grandmother falsely attested that she had visited the two \u201cat their home\u201d and \u201chad seen them to have a good relationship as husband and wife.\u201d <\/p>\n
On Aug. 7, 2009, Islam lied in an I-485 form where he was required to list his \u201cpresent husband\/wife.\u201d The defendant listed only J.A.C., although at that time he was still married to a woman named Nasrin in Bangladesh. <\/p>\n
Form I-485 is an application to register permanent residence or adjust status.<\/p>\n
In the same form, Islam listed no children, although he has a daughter and a son in Bangladesh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mohammed Mohedul Islam, a Bangladeshi who has lived on Saipan for 20 years, was slapped…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[54,411,57,119],"class_list":["post-36037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-agency","tag-bangladesh","tag-united-states","tag-uscis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36037\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}