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Jury trial begins for woman in alleged CW-1 scheme
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Posted on Jun 30 2021
The jury trial for one of four persons indicted for allegedly defrauding U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services over applications for CW-1 non-immigrant visas began yesterday at the U.S. District Court for the NMI.
The jury trial for Servillana Soriano, who is charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States for her alleged involvement in a CW-1 petition scheme back in 2019, kicked off and concluded with the selection of a jury.
The 13 jurors will return to court today to hear opening arguments.
Soriano’s co-conspirators—Aminul Islam, Halim Khan, and Faroque Hose—were also charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. To date, Islam and Hosen have both pleaded guilty.
Back on Feb. 16, U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona sentenced Islam to one-week imprisonment, one year of supervised release, and 25 hours of community service. He was also ordered to pay a $100 assessment fee.
Hosen’s sentencing has been scheduled for July 23, 2021, at 1:30pm.
As for Halim Khan, his jury trial will start on Aug. 29, 2021.
According to indictment, Soriano and her co-conspirators agreed to defraud the United States by deceitful and dishonest means for the purpose of impeding, impairing, obstructing, and defeating the lawful government functions of a government agency, USCIS, in the fair and objective evaluation of CW-1 non-immigrant visa applications.
The indictment stated that RES International LLC would submit a petition for CW-1 classification in exchange for money that would falsely and fraudulently represent that an employer-employee relationship exists between RES and the beneficiaries under the employment terms.
The primary purpose of the application was allegedly to obtain legal status for those beneficiaries.
