A federal court on Monday sentenced an American Navy Reserve officer to two-and-a-half years in prison for his role in helping Afghan nationals obtain special visas into the United States in exchange for cash.
Jeromy Pittmann, a 53-year-old U.S. Navy Reserve commander from Florida, was sentenced to 30 months in prison for the years-long scheme which included drafting and submitting fraudulent letters of recommendations on behalf of Afghans who applied for Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs), according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). The sentencing follows warnings by federal watchdogs that the vetting of Afghans into the U.S. after the botched military pullout of the country was poorly conducted.
“Pittmann’s participation in this bribery scheme not only jeopardized the integrity of the SIV program, which protects our allies, but also introduced significant security risks to our nation,” Special Agent in Charge Greg Gross of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) Economic Crimes Field Office stated.
“NCIS and our partners will continue to hold accountable those who exploit government processes for personal gain, ensuring that the safety of the public and our warfighters is preserved,” Gross continued.
SIVs can provide permanent residency to Afghan and Iraqi nationals who have given assistance to the U.S. government abroad, according to the State Department. Those eligible, such as translators for the military, can obtain a direct path to a green card for themselves and their dependents.
Pittmann signed more than 20 letters of recommendation for Afghan SIV applicants, fraudulently claiming that he personally knew the applicants while they worked as translators for U.S. military personnel and NATO, and that their lives were at risk because the Taliban considered them traitors, according to the DOJ. He also claimed in these letters that, due to this personal knowledge of the individuals, he did not believe that they posed a risk to the national security of the U.S.
In exchange for these letters on behalf of Afghans he actually did not know, Pittmann received several thousand dollars in bribes, according to the DOJ. He attempted to conceal this bribery scheme by receiving the cash via an intermediary and creating false invoices in order to make it appear as legitimate income.
Pittmann was convicted of conspiracy to commit bribery, bribery, making a materially false writing and conspiring to commit money laundering by a jury in the District of New Hampshire in July.
“This case shows how someone betrayed his sacred oath of office to commit crimes for personal gain, with no regard for how his actions could threaten U.S. homeland security and harm Afghans, who risked their lives to help the United States,” Inspector General John Sopko of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) stated. “It also shows how a U.S. Government investigation — from initial tip to prosecution to conviction — can hold individuals accountable for their crimes.”
The Department of Homeland Security inspector general in September 2022 concluded that immigration officials failed to properly vet many of the roughly 79,000 Afghan evacuees that entered the U.S. following Present Joe Biden’s botched pullout of the country. The watchdog also found that names, birth dates, identification numbers and other travel documentation that was processed from the incoming Afghans included inaccurate or missing data.
The vetting procedures for the thousands of Afghan migrants into the U.S. was further put into question after the DOJ announced earlier in October the arrest of Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, a 27-year-old Afghan who recently entered the country and was allegedly planning an Election Day terrorist attack against Americans. Congressional Republicans are still investigating how Tawhedi managed to enter the U.S.
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