FRAUD SUMMARY - GEORGETOWN, GUYANA

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 07 GEORGETOWN 000060 SIPDIS DEPT FOR CA/FPP; DEPT ALSO PASS TO KCC; POSTS FOR FRAUD PREVENTION AND HUMAN SMUGGLING AND TRAFFICKING CENTER, INL/HSTC. CARACAS ALSO FOR DHS AND LEGATT PORT OF SPAIN ALSO FOR DEA AND A/LEGATT BRIDGETOWN ALSO FOR ORA E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KFRD CVIS CPAS CMGT ASEC KCRM GY SUBJECT: FRAUD SUMMARY - GEORGETOWN, GUYANA Ref A) 2005 STATE 205073, B) 2005 GEORGETOWN 1043 C) 2005 GEORGETOWN 1093 ¶1. SUMMARY: Economic and cultural pressure to migrate continues to motivate all forms of immigration fraud in Guyana. Cooperation with elements of the Government of Guyana (GoG) and civil society enables post to detect and combat some types but corruption and cultural support for migration complicate the task. Recent months have seen the emergence of new fraud trends, the continuation of old trends and the first visa scam fraud conviction in recent memory. END SUMMARY. -------------- COUNTRY CONDITIONS -------------- ¶2. Guyana is an impoverished South American country with a population of 751,223 (2002 census). The population is primarily of African or East Indian descent with smaller groups of Chinese, Portuguese and Amerindians. Nearly 90% of the population lives along the coast, the interior is largely unpopulated and undeveloped. Guyana is English- speaking and culturally West Indian with few cultural or economic ties to the rest of South America. Guyana has the second highest incidence of HIV/AIDS in the western hemisphere and is one of fifteen focus countries for the President's Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Guyana is democratic but voting is divided on ethnic lines and elections have been marred by post-election violence. ¶3. Legal and illegal emigration from Guyana is very high. More than 400,000 Guyanese live in the U.S. and Canada; an additional 6800 legally immigrate to the U.S. each year (almost 1% of the total population). Emigration to the UK and the rest of Caribbean are also significant. A recent OECD study showed that 85% of Guyanese university graduates leave Guyana and that most high school students intend to leave. Crime, poverty and political instability create strong push factors while the large overseas Guyanese community pulls. Many Guyanese see emigration as the best and only chance for a brighter future. ¶4. Fraudulent documents and legitimate documents obtained under false pretenses are easy to obtain. Quality control and document security are low priorities, passport biographic information and amendments are hand-written. The only security features in civil documents are a dry seal and signature. Talented forgers in Guyana sell packages of false documents. Corruption is also high. Transparency International gives Guyana a rating of 2.5 out of 10, one of the lowest in the region. The Thomas Carroll scandal in 1999 fostered the perception of corruption in the Embassy. The procedures for issuing legitimate documents are not very secure. Many births are late registered. Post has seen individuals whose births were legitimately registered when they were 20 or older. Community Health Workers are supposed to complete registration documents for births they assist but this is not done consistently. National ID cards are issued by the Guyana Elections Commission and can be obtained with a birth certificate. Name changes are quite common and can be achieved with little more than a sworn affidavit. These can then be used as seed documents to obtain a legitimately issued Guyanese passport. Post knows of at least one smuggler who obtained a legitimate passport under a false identity. (See IV fraud for more details) -------------- NIV Fraud -------------- ¶5. Continuing enhancements in secure visas lead more Guyanese to seek legitimate visas with false seed documents such as bank letters, employment letters, marriage certificates and property deeds. The consular section has coordinated with several banks to standardize their bank letters and improve document security. Banks are also encouraged to include 3 months of transactions with statements to guard against applicants who borrow money just before applying to inflate their assets. FPU maintains numerous exemplars of genuine and false documents and each day verifies documents with the issuer. ¶6. Travel histories are difficult to verify and immigration officials reportedly backdate reentry stamps for travelers who overstay on an NIV. Informants have also stated that the Guyanese Consulate in New York will sell emergency certificates to allow Guyanese to return without a passport. The passport is then carried in a suitcase and backdated in Guyana. Another tactic to mask an extended stay in the US is to apply for another passport claiming the original was lost or stolen. This tactic is so common the Guyana Passport Office usually requires a 9 month wait to reissue lost or stolen passports. These schemes allow Guyanese to conceal the fact they are staying and working in the US from both DHS and consular officers. ¶7. Third country national applications are not frequent except for Chinese from the Guangdong province in southern China who immigrate to Guyana in large numbers. Some come for businesses opportunities but others simply make Guyana a way stop on the long journey to the United States or Canada. Chinese applicants usually speak little English but often have business registrations and bank statements indicating they are successful entrepreneurs. In some cases the assets exist but have been transferred on paper to visa applicants to make them seem qualified. ¶8. Employment based applications are fairly rare although post does receive a significant number of H1B petitions from the NYC school system. These are generally bona fide. One trend recently detected has been to create a shell company in the United States and then apply for an L1 intracompany transfer visa which would allow them to work in the United States. -------------- IV FRAUD -------------- ¶9. Almost all IV cases are family-based petitions and fraud is rampant. Weak Guyanese civil institutions significantly complicate fraud prevention. As noted above until recently birth and marriage certificates have been printed on various paper stocks with no security features other than a signature and a dry seal. Recently there has been some effort to improve document security but the General Registrar reports that authentic birth certificates with false information were issued and continue to be issued. The General Registrar Office has been very cooperative in investigations, usually checking suspect documents within a few hours. ¶10. Poor record keeping and cultural attitudes towards names make ordinarily relationship cases difficult. Many Guyanese use nicknames unrelated to their legal names or informally adopt a different surname due to a common law relationship or birth out of wedlock. Guyanese law allows people to change their names or re-register their births with little more than a sworn affidavit. Consular officers are often presented with a pile of documents that try to establish how names and identities changed over time. A surprising number of these cases turn out to be bona fide but many are also fraudulent. ¶11. Rampant fraud and poor records have made it necessary to use DNA tests much more frequently to establish bona fides of claimed relationships. Post expects to perform 750 tests this year, up from 120 two years ago. ¶12. Marriage and engagement fraud remains the tool of choice for bringing extended relatives to the United States. Post estimates that 50% to 75% of IR1, CR1, and K1 cases are nothing more than a business or family arrangement to bring relatives to the US. Rampant fraud requires extensive review and investigation of nearly all marriage cases. Interviewing officers have become skilled at detecting the tell-tale signs of sham marriages such as love at first sight, whirlwind courtships and scant evidence of relationship. In recent months we have seen marriages between siblings, aunts marrying nephews and teenage girls marrying first cousins strictly for immigration benefits. Post investigations have uncovered a marriage officer who sold marriage certificates to couples he had never seen. The General Registrar's Office has suspended him. However, some cases involve several generations of cousins and in- laws marrying, divorcing and remarrying to bring the entire family to the United States. Elaborate sham weddings are staged or applicants use pictures from another wedding or religious ceremony as evidence of their marriage. ¶13. To combat fraud marriage based petitions are now pre- screened for fraud indicators. Lexis/Nexis is a valuable tool to determine if petitioners are still living with ex- spouses or have family ties with the applicant (see reftel B). Post requires applicants and petitioners to submit their parents' birth certificates to determine if a blood relationship exists. Post offers IR-1 and CR-1 applicants the option of scheduling a joint interview initially to expedite the process since documentary evidence of relationship (EOR) is rarely conclusive. ¶14. When interviews, documentary evidence, research and joint interviews are not enough Post conducts field investigations. The number of investigations is increasing. Generally investigations have been productive. Guyana is a small country with a very close-knit society. Checks with several neighbors provide good information relating to the legitimacy of a marriage. However some applicants attempt to confound these investigations by giving a friend or relative's address as their own or by only providing their name and village, confident any mail will eventually find them. Once an applicant is located, investigators sometimes find neighbors were coached and give prepared answers. On more than one occasion when investigators arrived in a neighborhood, phone calls and runners warned surrounding houses. Although some neighbors are not willing to help sustain a fraud, Guyana's culture of emigration encourages some to help their friends get to America any way they can. ¶15. Immigration fraud in Guyana is in its second generation. People who immigrated under false pretenses are now sponsoring other relatives. Interviewing officers have found petitioners who immigrated with false birth certificates or who present false naturalization certificates. During interviews and investigations, FPU frequently uncovers another sibling or family member who already entered into a business marriage to immigrate. In one recent case the petitioner immigrated using a false birth certificate and obtained U.S. citizenship. She then returned to Guyana and married her biological brother. In each case post informs the Department of Homeland Security and Diplomatic Security for follow-up. ¶16. IV applicants presenting false documents are usually in violation of Guyanese law as well as U.S. immigration law. With cooperation from the RSO, the consular section regularly refers cases to the Guyana Police Force for investigation. In several cases violators have been arrested on the steps of the Embassy with full media coverage. The arrest case of the US citizen who fraudulently obtained immigration status and subsequently married her biological brother received extensive television coverage which noted that she is likely to lose her American citizenship in addition to being prosecuted for document fraud in Guyana. Post believes prosecutions like this will have a deterrent affect on future petitioners and applicants. ¶17. Post sees few employment-based IVs. One emerging theme is L1 intracompany transfers. Post is investigating several cases in which the US company may have been created solely for the purpose of applying for an L1 visa. -------------- DV Fraud -------------- ¶18. Guyana is allocated five diversity visas per year. We have found no significant fraud in DV applications. Outside the Embassy Post has seen cases of companies that collect large fees for filling in the free application form. Post routinely warns the public against these scams. -------------- ACS and Passport Fraud -------------- ¶19. The theft or misuse of U.S. passports and permanent resident cards has grown more appealing since the introduction of biometric visa procedures. Reports of lost or stolen travel documents are frequent. Post believes thieves are targeting passports and green cards. The number of lost or stolen passports reported yearly leads post to believe that individuals sell USC residency or citizenship documents. In a few cases, where the individual has reported several lost/stolen passports we have been able to limit their replacement passport. In addition post has seen a trend of Guyanese children who have permanent residency or even U.S. citizenship being sent back to Guyana to live with relatives. Their passports or permanent resident cards are then confiscated and held by the relatives or the parents in the U.S. In these cases post makes every effort to persuade the relatives to return the documents. When that fails the documents are reported stolen and new ones are issued. -------------- Adoption Fraud -------------- ¶20. Guyanese have begun to see adoption as another means to help family members immigrate (see reftel C). Post has found that many children do not meet the INA definition of orphan despite reports from the local adoption board to the contrary. Under Guyanese law, parents relinquishing children for adoption must appear before adoption officials to do so. However, in practice, Post has seen that many parents do not do so. Local social workers are required to conduct home studies for the adoption board to determine the child's home situation. These officials are vulnerable to bribery and some will, for a price, submit reports not consistent with a child's actually situation. In addition, at least one adoption has been revoked by the Guyanese Supreme Court after the children emigrated to the U.S. ¶21. The dramatic rise in the number of cases and percentage of bad cases led post to review all adoption cases by FPU before an interview. Field investigations are conducted in most cases and often reveal the child is living with one or both biological parents who can and do provide for the child's needs. In one recent case, two teenagers were adopted by an aunt after their father's death literally weeks before his immigrant visa interview. According to the Guyanese Adoption Board report the children were living in extreme poverty. A field investigation showed that their father's family is one of the richest in Guyana and they are living in a large luxurious house with their biological mother. ¶22. Post has also seen cases in which Guyanese who have immigrated to the U.S. are interested in adopting a child. For cultural reasons they do not choose to adopt a child from a local orphanage, instead they locate an impoverished child and pay the family to relinquish the child for adoption. Twenty-six out of fifty-three adoption cases (48%) were returned to DHS for review and possible revocation in FY 2005. -------------- Asylum and other DHS benefit fraud -------------- ¶23. Guyana has few asylum claims. Prior to FY2005, Post processed one family as Visas 93 while in FY2006 post has already received 7 Visas 93 cases, indicating that Guyanese applying for asylum after entering the U.S. with an NIV or attempting to enter with fraudulent travel documents in a growing trend. To date, we have not see relationship fraud in Visas 93 cases. Guyanese typically claim credible fear based on racial persecution, crime, or poverty. Recently three Guyanese were granted asylum based on the ridicule they will face after being removed from the U.S. ¶24. Post typically processes several transportation letters each week for LPRs reporting their green cards lost or stolen after arrival in Guyana. I-551s are a valuable commodity in Guyana and imposters frequently attempt to use stolen I-551s to enter the U.S. or Canada, usually transiting through Port of Spain first. -------------- Cooperation with host government authorities -------------- ¶25. Cooperation from Guyanese authorities has been mixed. The General Registrar's Office and the Immigration authority regularly verify or provide information to the consular section. The Guyana Police Force has been very cooperative in pursuing fraud cases referred by the Embassy. Media sources (including the government-owned media) have given excellent coverage to fraud warnings and arrests. However at higher levels cooperation disappears. Guyana is a small country with a close-knit society; the identities of most alien smugglers and narcotics traffickers are open secrets but they are rarely arrested and almost never convicted. Post has significant doubts about the validity and reliability of police certificates and often relies on media accounts to identify criminals. While Post has reliable information that many IV and NIV visa applicants are involved in alien or narcotics smuggling, it is difficult in most cases to sustain 2C or 6E findings. Local authorities do not want to provide information, even if it exists, about these individuals as they are often prominent members of society (including members of the police force and the government). This is part of a much larger problem of Guyana's weak civil society and makes it very difficult to target the large, well established rings. -------------- AREAS OF PARTICULAR CONCERN -------------- ¶26. Guyana is a transshipment point for narcotics to enter the United States and the influence of narcotic traffickers is growing in society. In two recent cases, the relationship was legitimate but the applicants were suspected narcotics traffickers who have never been arrested. There was not enough evidence to sustain a 2C refusal on them. In one case the suspected trafficker was arrested in Barbados on drug trafficking charges prior to issuance. In the other case the Guyana Police Force has offered to investigate and inform us if they find any hard evidence. In another case post learned that a suspected narcotics trafficker and death squad member is a permanent resident of the United States. Post has been unable to find sufficient evidence of his complicity in drug trafficking or murders to permit DHS to revoke his status. These examples clearly show how Guyana's combination of a high emigration and weak law enforcement pose a threat to national security. ¶27. Due to a deeply held belief that all government officials are corrupt and that anything can be bought, Guyanese are frequently victims of various visa scams. This belief is reinforced by the Thomas Carroll visa-selling scandal and a recent case of Canadian passports being sold by a corrupt local employee at the Canadian high commission. Embassy officers from the Ambassador on down are routinely told by Guyanese that someone in the Embassy is selling visas though no one is ever able to provide specific examples. Consular officers have reported no significant attempts to bribe or coerce them. ¶28. Clever con men have used the names of legitimate Embassy personnel to convince others they can provide visas. Recently a Guyanese con man was arrested for impersonating a U.S. Embassy official and persuading people to pay thousands of dollars in `security deposits' for immigrant visas. He used photocopies of Embassy letter head and on at least one occasion told his victims to wait on the Embassy steps for him to come with their visas. In December he was convicted of 20 counts of fraud. Despite this success just a week after his arrest the Embassy learned of another group asking applicants to pay hundreds of dollars for medical tests. The Guyana Police Force was notified and is investigating. Soon afterwards a woman contacted a consular section FSN fraud investigator about selling visas. The woman was identified and her visa was revoked. Meanwhile the sister- in-law of an FSN from the budget section claimed she could provide visas with his assistance. The FSN was unaware of his name was being used in this the scam. When the victims received nothing disgruntled customers threatened the oblivious staff member, who reported the case to the RSO and local police. An investigation led to the arrest of his sister-in-law. ¶29. Post regularly advises the public of scams and reminds them that legitimate visas can only be obtained at the U.S. Embassy. In order to better educate the public about policy and legitimate fees post is launching a weekly question and answer column in a local paper. -------------- STAFFING AND TRAINING -------------- ¶30. With the addition of a new consular officer position under the Consular Associate Replacement Program (CARP) a Fraud Prevention/American Citizen Services rotation was created. This officer has responsibility for two FSNs in the Fraud Prevention Unit and fraud investigations. This October the Consul completed the Fraud Prevention Manager course at FSI and most consular officers have taken the advanced name-checking course. Post is requesting the addition of an FS-03 full-time fraud prevention manager and an additional FSN fraud investigator. ¶31. The FPU Manager is the Consular Section Chief but the FPU Staff consists of a rotational ACS/FPU officer: Alexander McLaren (July 2005 to December 2005) FSO - Vice Consul Training: DHS - Detection of Fraudulent Documents and Imposters (at post),Canadian Immigration - Detection of Fraudulent Documents (at post) Christine Meyer (January 2006 to June 2006) FSO - Vice Consul Training: Advanced Name Checking (FSI) Rhonda Wells (July 2005 to December 2006) FSO - Vice Consul Training: Antifraud orientation (at post),Advanced Name Checking (FSI, April 2006) There are also two full-time local staff: Marcia Dehnert FSN - Senior Fraud Investigator Training: FPU Workshop (Ft. Lauderdale) Adepemo Peters FSN - Fraud Investigator ¶32. In May of 2005 two DHS officers visited post and conducted fraudulent document and imposter training for immigration and airline officials. For many of them this was the first and only training they had received on this subject. Post requests another visit by DHS or CA/FPP and PowerPoint presentations and exemplars that can be used to train local officials. -------------- CONCLUSIONS -------------- ¶33. High levels of legal and illegal migration and weak civil society make Guyana a very challenging consular environment. However cooperation from certain aspects of the GoG and new consular tools have allowed for considerable progress in combating fraud. The addition of a full-time FS- 03 fraud officer, expanded access to Lexis/Nexis to more than one officer will better prepare Post to combat fraud. BULLEN