SALINAS: Federal agents arrested a dozen people in Salinas Oct 31 on charges of paying more than $1 million in bribes to obtain fraudulent work permits for illegal aliens around the state.

The arrests followed a five month investigation that netted $1.6 million in bribes from 20 so called “fraud facilitators”, people who were paid money by others to get the one year work permits.

Those arrested so far are Murari Lal Gulati of San Jose, Baldev Singh of Hollister, Dalip S Gatra of Fremont, Amarjit Kumar, Harpun Singh Ahluwalia, of San Francisco, Jaspal Singh of Huron, Kunwar Ram Bhushan, Surinder Singh of Milpitas, Mrs Madhu Kuwar and Jasvir S Mand of Sacramento, Shamsher Singh Sher of Berkeley and Narinder Mandher of Santa Gara.

Eight people still were at large. Most of those arrested are immigrants from India living around the Bay Area.

As part of the investigation, the Immigration and Naturalization Service gave out more than 1,000 1688A work permits that actually are invalid. Many of the recipients  are believed to be Indian immigrants who came to the United States to be eligible for the permits, which have been issued under the immigration amnesty program.

Officials now will now begin tracking down the recipients of the ill gotten I688A cards and initiate deportation proceedings against them, said Joseph Brandon Jr., chief of INS investigations in the San Francisco regional office.

The investigation began in June when a man identified as Om Parkash Sondhi reportedly offered a bribe to Gregory Ward, chief legalization officer for the INS office in Salinas. According to an FBI affidavit, Om offered Ward half of the $1,000 he could get from prospective card seekers.

When Ward reported the bribe attempt, FBI agent asked him to go ahead and accept the money while wearing a wiretap.

As word spread that work permits could be purchased, Ward found himself at the center of “a virtual feeding frenzy,” said Geotge Clow, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s San Francisco office.

“The competition got so heated that the fraud facilitators were offering Ward more and more money,” said Brandon. The standard bribe for a permit quickly rose from $500 to $2,000, investigators said.

In addition to the bribes, the card brokers provided Ward with names, and addresses and photographs of all the card recipients to be used in processing the permits. The brokers then received blank permit cards to give to their customers, Brandon said

Those arrested were snared all together when they showed up for scheduled appointments with Ward. All 12 were ordered held without bail by U.S. Magistrate Edward Infant, who traveled to Salinas especially for the arraignments.

The defendants are scheduled for bail hearings Monday. All are charged with single counts of bribery, although the number of counts may be increased through grand jury indictments, Clow said.

 

Article extracted from this publication >> November 9, 1990