Viewing cable 09KINGSTON790, Fraud Summary - Kingston March 2009 - August 2009

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UNCLAS KINGSTON 000790 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
C O R R E C T E D COPY CAPTION 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: CVIS KFRD CPAS CMGT ASEC JM
SUBJECT: Fraud Summary - Kingston March 2009 - August 2009 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY. In the second half of FY 2009, Kingston's Fraud 
Prevention Unit (FPU) focused on IV relationship fraud and 
enhancing cooperation with our partners at the British and Canadian 
High Commissions and the law enforcement community within the 
Embassy. During the past two quarters, FPU attended a half-day 
joint conference for the fraud units of the U.S., British, and 
Canadian Missions; coordinated with CBP to train 212 airline 
representatives on fraudulent document detection; and implemented 
additional processes to prevent criminals from obtaining visas. 
FPU received 406 Nonimmigrant Visa (NIV) cases, 57 new Immigrant 
Visa (IV) cases, 21 ACS cases, and 150 external requests (database 
checks from DHS, airlines, local immigration, etc.). FPU processed 
an additional 391 walk-in cases and entered 2,427 CLASS records 
based on I-275 turn around reports, information from other agencies 
and other tips. Of all the visa cases referred, 42% of IV cases 
were confirmed fraud and 27% of the NIV cases were confirmed fraud. 
END SUMMARY 
 
 
 
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COUNTRY CONDITIONS 
------------------ 
 
¶2. (SBU) Jamaica, located 550 miles south of Florida, has a 
population estimated to be 2.8 million and a 2008 GDP of USD 14 
billion. In 2008, remittances were responsible for 20% of GDP and, 
even before the effects of the economic downturn began to hit 
Jamaica, its 2008 unemployment rate was 11%. 
Independent since 1962, Jamaica is a member of the British 
Commonwealth with a constitutional parliamentary democracy with 
relatively high literacy rates, an outspoken and vibrant press, and 
an open market economy. Two parties, both originating from labor 
movements, dominate the political scene: the Jamaica Labor Party, 
elected in 2007 and led by Prime Minister Bruce Golding, and the 
Peoples National Party. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Jamaica is a major producer of marijuana ("ganja") for the 
U.S. market. Jamaica is also routinely exploited as a narcotics 
(including cocaine) transshipment hub. Jamaica is also a 
significant transit hub for other contraband, particularly weapons 
smuggling in the form of a robust guns for drugs trade with Haiti. 
The Department rates the crime threat as critical. Depressed 
economic conditions and the presence of the drug trade contribute 
to civil unrest and criminal activity, including significant visa 
and citizenship fraud. Illegal migration, transnational crime, 
economic inertia, and a formidable HIV/AIDS presence adversely 
affect U.S. national security, economic, democracy, and other 
strategic interests. 
 
¶4. (U) Jamaica's proximity to the U.S. mainland and well-developed 
sea lanes and air links facilitate the movements of over two 
million travelers, including well over two million American 
tourists annually between the United States and Jamaica. An 
estimated 34,100 U.S. citizens reside in Embassy Kingston's 
consular district, which includes the Cayman Islands. Kingston's 
Consular Section supports consular agents in Montego Bay and the 
Cayman Islands. 
 
¶5. (SBU) The incidence of suspected fraud in many government 
agencies is high. Visa applicants often submit forged or altered 
birth, marriage, and police certificates. Jamaica's corruption 
index score by Transparency International has a 2.8% confidence, 
placing it 96 out of 180 rated countries, which is well below other 
WHA countries, such as Costa Rica, Cuba, Mexico, and Chile. 
 
----------------------- 
NONIMMIGRANT VISA FRAUD 
----------------------- 
 
 
¶6. (SBU) H-2B PETITION FRAUD: Post has been involved in assisting 
the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia in a 
criminal case against two of the Jamaican recruiters that were 
finding workers for convicted alien trafficker Victor Krus: Clover 
Mae Robinson-Gordon and O'Brian Gordon (Obriclo Marketing Agency). 
ICE, DS and the members of the US Attorney's office came to 
Kingston to observe H2b interviews as well as to familiarize 
themselves with post's H2b intake procedures. Kingston's Visa 
Chief will be testifying as a witness in the case in October 2009. 
FPU also learned that Hospitality Management and Catering Services 
had also been involved with supplying labor to Viktar Krus for his 
staffing companies. In April, the Fraud Prevention Manager along 
with an Entry Level Officer met with personnel from the Ministry of 
Labour Overseas Employment Department regarding its processing of 
H2B visas applicants and H2A agricultural workers. FPU has 
expressed interest in the MOL's H2B and H2A conference tentatively 
scheduled for late January to early February 2010. 

¶7. (U) NIV DUAL IDENTITY CASE: Post has seen an increase in the 
number of identity fraud cases caught through Facial Recognition. 
Two cases in particular were performers who required a waiver for 
prior drug activity through the ARO. In both cases, FR showed that 
the applicant had been issued a visa under a different identity. 
Both applicants were subsequently refused 6(C)(1). In both cases, 
post requested an Advisory Opinion withdrawing its recommendation 
for a waiver to which the Department agreed. An Immigration 
Officer employed by the Passport, Immigration and Citizenship 
Agency (PICA) was terminated after FPU's investigations revealed 
discrepancies on her letter of employment. In addition to 
overstating her salary allowance, this applicant also forged the 
signature of PICA's former Director of Human Resources, who was no 
longer at the agency at the date of her employment was supposedly 
signed. Another NIV applicant and member of Jamaica Fire Brigade 
faced internal disciplinary sanction or dismissal after the 
Brigade's Acting Commissioner apologized to the Embassy on behalf 
of his Department, for this applicant discreditable act of 
falsifying documents for U.S. training. 
 
 
¶8. (U) J-1 SUMMER WORK AND TRAVEL PROGRAM: Post saw a large amount 
of summer work and travel applicants. Now that all SWT applicants 
should have returned to their studies, we have begun to put 
together a validation study of those students who participated in 
the SWT program. Post also plans to prepare a cable regarding the 
SWT validation results as well as the increasing problem of 
recruiter fees for the SWT applicants. Plans for future outreach 
are proposed in order to streamline this group of applicants, some 
of whom are improperly recruited by H2B agents. 
 
 
 
¶9. (U) H-1B PETITION REVOCATIONS: Post has not submitted any 
revocation requests during this time period. 
 
 
 
¶10. (U) L-1A PETITION REVOCATION: Post has not submitted any 
revocation requests during this time period. 
 
 
-------------------- 
IMMIGRANT VISA FRAUD 
-------------------- 
 
¶11. (U) FPU staff conducted eight field investigations in immigrant 
visa cases of which five were determined to be based on a 
fraudulent relationship. Two of the Unit's LES Fraud Investigators 
and an entry level officer participated in these trips. The field 
trips covered six of Jamaica's parishes [local administrative unit 
equivalent to a U.S. state]. 
 
¶12. (U) Kingston has encouraged (but not required) many applicants 
in romantic relationship cases (IR1, CR1, K1, K3) who do not 
immediately convince the adjudicating officer of the bona fides of 
their relationships to bring petitioners to their follow-up 
interviews. The higher percentage of petitioners present at 
follow-up interviews has improved the officers' ability to detect 
relationship fraud. Also, FPU's LES investigators have conducted 
more split interviews of the petitioner and applicant in recent 
months, applying their wealth of local knowledge and years of 
experience to garner more confessions of relationship fraud and 
saving adjudicating officers interview time. These successful 
split interviews also save FPU time and resources by reducing the 
number of local field investigations required to complete fraud 
reviews of questionable immigrant visa cases. 
 
-------- 
DV FRAUD 
-------- 
 
¶13. (U) Jamaicans are not eligible to participate in the DV 
program. Kingston processes only a minuscule number of cases for 
applicants from other countries. 
 
-------------------------------------------- 
AMERICAN CITIZEN SERVICES AND PASSPORT FRAUD 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
 
¶14. (SBU) U.S. PASSPORT FRAUD: On September 2, a Jamaican 
immigration official brought an altered birth certificate and two 
U.S. passports to the Embassy in connection with an ongoing case. 
The passports belonged to AMCIT Joy Marie Jeffrey and her alleged 
son Uckello Akhtar. Uckello Akhtar and his biological mother, 
Natalee Edwards, were issued nonimmigrant visas in 2007 and 
traveled to the United States in 2007. In support of a jointly 
filed petition for Alein relative (Form I-130) and an Application 
for Adjustment of Status (I-485), Ms. Jeffrey presented an altered 
birth certificate listing her as Uckello's mother. He was issued a 
U.S. passport in 2008. Ms. Jeffrey then returned to Jamaica and 
filed for unconditional stay for Uckello using his U.S. passport, 
however, this claim was denied because Ms. Jeffrey presented the 
same altered birth certificate. Ms. Jeffrey was charged by the 
Jamaican police with altering/forging an official document and 
presenting an altered document; she pled guilty and paid a fine on 
September 4, 2009. Post continues to work with CA/OCS/PRI on this 
case. 
 
 
-------------- 
ADOPTION FRAUD 
-------------- 
 
¶15. (U) FPU has begun working with Kingston's USCIS in the 
processing of adoption cases. If the adoption case is not clearly 
approvable, the IV unit now refers the case to USCIS for further 
investigation. FPU continues to investigate suspect IR2 cases 
based on an adoption. Post continues to see a significant number 
of adoption cases where the applicant was adopted close to his/her 
sixteenth birthday. Jamaica has a tradition of informal adoptions, 
which makes it difficult for Jamaican applicants to establish their 
eligibility as orphans under U.S. immigration law. However, the 
applicant's prospective parents may still successfully adopt the 
child pursuant to Jamaican family law and procedures. 
 
------------------ 
USE OF DNA TESTING 
------------------ 
 
 
¶16. (U) Kingston often requests applicants to undergo DNA testing 
because their father's name is either not on the birth certificate 
at all, or was added many years after their birth. In many cases, 
these fathers have never lived with their children or played a role 
in their lives until they go to immigrate. Approximately 10 
percent of all cases where DNA is done resulted in no biological 
relationship. This percentage does not include those applicants 
that choose to abandon their case rather than undergo DNA testing. 
FP is currently working with the Immigrant Visa Unit to update its 
DNA procedures as a result of the processing changes. 
 
 
----------------------------------- 
ASYLUM AND OTHER DHS BENEFITS FRAUD 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶17. (U) Post's DHS/USCIS Officer-in-Charge reported no asylum cases 
for the period of March 2009 - August 2009. 
 
------------------------------ 
ALIEN SMUGGLING, TRAFFICKING, 
----------------------------- 
--------------------------------- 
ORGANIZED CRIME, TERRORIST TRAVEL 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶18. (SBU) FPU continues to work closely with law enforcement 
counterparts within the embassy and maintain a monthly 
collaboration meeting to foster greater information sharing. 
Organized crime and terrorist travel are addressed in conjunction 
with several law enforcement agencies at post and include FPU and 
ARSO-I on issues as they arise. Of particular interest was the 
arrest of Stephen Fray, the Jamaican who attempted to hijack a 
Canadian airliner at Montego Bay's Sangster International Airport 
on April 19. We actively collect data from the U.S. law 
enforcement agencies at post (U.S. Marshals, DEA, ICE and the 
Jamaican authorities through NAS) to create new CLASS entries on 
persons extradited to the United States; deported back to Jamaica 
from the United States; apprehended by ICE in the United States; 
and arrested in Jamaica for offenses here. We also actively comb 
the Jamaican news media to create CLASS entries or supplement 
existing ones. From March-August 2009, FPU has added 2,555 entries 
to CLASS. Another FPU initiative is the compilation of data on 
applicants who are confirmed dead for cancellation of their NIVs. 
This is being done to prevent travelers from impersonating dead 
applicants. 
 
-------------------------------- 
DS CRIMINAL FRAUD INVESTIGATIONS 
-------------------------------- 
 
 
¶19. (SBU) In addition to supporting DS, ICE and the U.S. Attorney 
in the Robinson/Gordon prosecution, Kingston FPU and RSO 
coordinated efforts to arrest a former visa applicant (Courtney 
Rhoden) who picked up the visa and passport of an applicant (Omain 
Harriott)by presenting a letter to DHL (our courier passback 
contractor)stating that he had been given authorization to pick up 
the passport. When Mr. Harriott went to DHL to pick up his 
passport, he learned that it had been already picked up by Mr. 
Rhoden, whom he does not know. DHL representatives came to the 
embassy and discussed how to tighten the procedures so that this 
would never happen again. RSO notified Jamaican police who then 
arrested the Mr. Rhoden. 
 
 
 
¶20. (SBU) FPU revoked the visa of a contact of the 
Political/Economic Section (Ms. Karen Cross)who used her 
relationship with Post to assist unqualified applicants procure 
visas through the referral system. Ms. Cross requested that the P/E 
Section process referrals on behalf of otherwise unqualified 
applicants under the pretext that they were meeting with a 
congressman in the United States. Analysis shows that the 
applicants did not follow a set schedule and did not travel as a 
delegation. At least one applicant has attempted to adjust status 
in the United States and DHS has not recorded a return trip for 
three of the other applicants. 
 
 
----------------------------------------- 
HOST COUNTRY PASSPORT, IDENTITY DOCUMENTS, 
----------------------------------------- 
------------------ 
AND CIVIL REGISTRY 
------------------ 
 
 
¶21. (U) Document forgers, corrupt government officials and poor law 
enforcement assist alien smuggling rings operating in the country. 
The incidence of suspected fraud in many government agencies is 
high. The Jamaican government (GOJ) has issued a secure passport, 
but issuance procedures are poor and a new identity complete with a 
GOJ issued passport continues to be easy to obtain, once the 
individual provides a birth certificate and a photographic 
identification. 
 
 
-------------------------------------------- 
COOPERATION WITH HOST GOVERNMENT AUTHORITIES 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
 
¶22. (U) FPU continues to have a positive working relationship with 
the Jamaican Registrar General's Department (RGD) verifying civil 
documents. All cases involving altered RGD documents continue to 
be referred to the RGD's fraud department, regardless of whether 
the fraud would result in potential visa ineligibilities. This new 
system allows the RGD to attempt to pinpoint the sources of these 
fraudulent documents, thereby resulting in the arrests of the 
responsible individuals. 
 
 
 
¶23. (U) FPU continued our public outreach efforts with airlines and 
immigration officers training in May and trained 108 participants. 
In June, FPU coordinated with a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) 
team to train approximately 104 airline representatives on the 
detection of fraudulent documents, facial recognition and U.S. 
travel document requirements. 
 
 
------------------------------- 
COOPERATION WITH OTHER MISSIONS 
------------------------------- 
 
 
 
¶24. (SBU) Cooperation with our colleagues at the British and 
Canadian High Commissions is one of FPU's highest priorities. All 
three Missions face common fraud threats, so it is clear that we 
can each target fraud more effectively through communication and 
information sharing. FPU attended a conference at the British High 
Commission with fraud officers from the French and Germany 
Embassies, and from the British and Canadian High Commissions. The 
conference focused on information sharing and fraud trends. The 
British High Commission presented an overview of the Third Country 
Nationals that they are seeing in Jamaica as well as their risk 
profiling system (similar to our validation studies). They also 
shared with the group a new fraud ring involving informal importers 
("higglers") with travel to China who are actually smuggling drugs. 
FPU collaborative efforts with the Canadian High Commission 
resulted in misrepresentation by this NIV applicant, whose Canadian 
was altered and security feature of this visa intercepted by 
Canadian authorities in the passport of another traveler. 

--------------------------- 
AREAS OF PARTICULAR CONCERN 
--------------------------- 

¶25. (SBU) As a result of the economic downturn, post has witnessed 
increasing H2B petitioner malfeasance cases. In particular we have 
seen several illegal visa swapping schemes in which a company that 
has a valid petition sells some slots to a company that does not. 
We have also seen petitioners submitting petitions for jobs in the 
United States to which the presumed employer did not enter into an 
agreement with the petitioner and does not have available jobs or 
submitting a petition that ends within three months of the visa 
issuance, while promising applicants they will file an extension on 
their behalf for a fee. FPU is also involved in checking for 
fraudulent MRV receipts from Paymaster, Kingston's previous 
off-site fee collection agent. 
 
---------------------------- 
STAFFING AND TRAINING ISSUES 
---------------------------- 
 
¶26. (U) The Fraud Prevention Operations Officer position has been 
filled by Kristina Hayden, replacing Katherine Rafaniello who 
rotated back to NIV in September. Melissa Bishop remains as the 
Fraud Prevention Manager, in addition to her duties as the Deputy 
Chief of the Visa Unit, with primary responsibility for NIV 
operations. David Rainsberger joined FPU as the new Assistant 
RSO-I, replacing Vaughn Mosely. The newly created FSN 08 position 
was filled and the newly created FSN-09 position should be filled 
shortly. Kingston hosted Ms. Sharon Smith, FSN from Hamilton, 
Bermuda for a week (May 11-15). Ms. Smith observed our LES and 
officers, specifically reviewing our IV split interview procedures 
and incorporated what she learned here in Hamilton's FP operations. 
Kingston's FPU is awaiting construction of its new more private and 
more secure office suite in an area of the Consular Section that 
was erroneously designated for GSO storage from the time Post 
occupied its New Embassy Compound in December 2006. 
 
Parnell