TOGO: CONSULAR FRAUD SUMMARY

UNCLAS LOME 000408

C O R R E C T E D C O P Y--(PARA. NUMBERING)

PARIS FOR BOB KANEDA
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PHUM CASC TO
SUBJECT: TOGO: CONSULAR FRAUD SUMMARY


1. SUMMARY: The following is the Consular Fraud Summary update for
the period of April to September 2009. END SUMMARY.


2. COUNTRY CONDITIONS: The international donor community has slowly
returned to assist Togo to emerge from years of economic stagnation.
However, the local economy has been hit hard by the international
economic crisis, massive flooding in 2008, and a reluctance of
foreign businesses to invest before the presidential 2010 election.
The Government of Togo (GOT) is currently focusing almost entirely
on preparation for the presidential elections scheduled for February
28, 2010. The international community is calling on Togo to have
free, transparent, credible, and peaceful elections, however
increasing dissension between GOT, the ruling party and the
opposition parties on elements of the electoral code and the
formation of the Independent National Electoral Commission have
seriously delayed election planning. Togo has a history of violence
during election periods and there are growing concerns that there
will be a repeat of the civil unrest that erupted during the 2005
Presidential election. The fear of violence could lead to an
increase in visa applicants in the coming months. Furthermore,
should violence occur, Post expects a rise in asylum claims at the
Department of Homeland Security similar to the increase during the
2005 Togolese Presidential elections. Natural Disaster Damages: The
GOT is still working on repairing the infrastructure of the capital
and key bridges, which were destroyed during flooding last year.
With assistance from China, the GOT was able to reconstruct and
inaugurate three major bridges on the primary routes linking the
North and Southern portions of the country, and the major commercial
routes to Burkina Faso. However, much more still remains to be
done.


3. NON IMMIGRANT VISA FRAUD: Over the last six months, NIV fraud
investigations represented only 6% of FPU's total investigation
workload. Most of these applicants intended to study, visit or
conduct some form of business in the U.S. The number of fiance
petitions doubled. Bank Document Fraud: None of the bank documents
that were investigated by FPU were found to be fake during the
reporting period. The large number of arrests associated with
fraudulent bank documents over the past few years has deterred new
applicants from providing fake paperwork. Passport Fraud: One
tourist visa applicant was arrested during the reporting period for
using a fake passport. The applicant stated during his visa
interview that he was going to visit his brother who is a diplomatic
courier. The subject was issued a single-entry visa valid for three
months. He later returned to the Embassy to apply for another visa,
with a complex story about getting his passport and visa confiscated
in Holland. The Fraud Unit of the American Embassy in Amsterdam
confirmed that the subject was arrested and deported after he
presented a fake passport to local authorities at the Amsterdam
airport. The applicant was arrested by the Togolese gendarmes and he
confessed that he had bought the fake passport from a fetish priest
after he was unable to get a passport in a timely manner from the
GOT. Students Visa Application: In the months approaching the end
of the fiscal year, Embassy Lome saw an increase in the number of
student visa applications from third country nationals. Allegedly
resident of Nigeria, Ghana and Benin, these applicants claimed they
were given appointment dates in their country of residence that
would not allow them sufficient time to travel before the beginning
of the school year. Applicants meeting this profile were routinely
denied. High School Diplomas with International Schools: There has
been a decrease in the number of student visa applicants from
schools that don't follow the Togolese/French education model, i.e.
do not prepare students to pass the baccalaureate (BAC). Togolese
high school diploma fraud has also decreased. Over the past fiscal
year, 99% of all BACs verified were genuine. The Fraud Prevention
Unit has maintained a good working relationship with the Office of
the Baccalaurat and is working on improving access to BAC rosters
in order to provide quick and timely verification of high school
degrees. It should be noted that many of the diplomas that were
confirmed to be fake were by Togolese diversity visa (DV) winners
who were interviewing at other posts.


4. IMMIGRANT VISA FRAUD (Non-DV): Most IV cases seen at Post are
CR/IR and V92 follow-to-join applications. During the past six
months, 14% of FPUs workload was comprised of IV investigations.
This rate represents half of the workload from last semester. An
overall rate of 25% of all IV investigations discovered either fake
marriage certificates or sham marriages. V92 follow-to-join
applications: Approximately 25 percent of V92 cases involved
fraudulent paperwork where the original marriage or birth
certificates provided by the applicant could not be located at the
registrar's office. These applicants can rarely provide proof of
their relationship and many gave the same story -there was fire or
flooding in the area/house and all their pictures and their original
marriage certificate were destroyed. What is notable is that in a
number of the V92 cases where the applicants have provided
inconsistent responses when asked questions about the petitioner
during the interview, or when they have provided clearly
photo-shopped pictures or fraudulent documents as proof of their
relationship, later DNA testing has found that the claimed
relationships are genuine. Revocations: Six revocations were sent
during this reporting period.


5. DIVERSITY VISA FRAUD: Diversity Visa investigations represented
79% of FPU's workload over the last six months. Over 80 percent of
DV applicants for the 2008 fiscal year were qualified and issued a
visa. This represents a notable change from the past where often
less than 50 percent of applicants were determined to be eligible
(2006). We attribute this to better outreach and explanation of the
eligibility requirements for the DV visas. High school diplomas
(BACs): Most DV applicants are now BAC holders. Officers refer all
such diplomas to the Fraud Prevention Unit for systematic
verification. As mentioned above, only 1% of all BACs verified this
year were confirmed fraudulent. There is therefore no major fraud
concern at the moment, most likely because all applicants know their
diplomas will be verified. Some DV applicants pretend to qualify on
the basis of education by bringing technical diplomas or degrees
earned abroad in a different education system. Post systematically
refers such applicants to the National Committee for Certification
and Equivalence of Diplomas. No diplomas have been confirmed as
fake during this period. Employment Verifications: Post continues
through O'Net Online classification to determine whether applicants'
expertise meet the right job zone. The Fraud Prevention Unit
performs onsite investigations to ascertain the level of expertise
that the applicants claim to have. Many applicants have their jobs
listed on the O'Net, but fail to have the level of expertise
required. Relationship Fraud: There was a substantial decrease in
the number of married DV applicants. Most applicants are now single
and qualified on the basis of education. However, near the end of
the DV season, some fraud trends began to emerge. The Nigerian Fraud
Ring: A number of Nigerian applicants appeared at the end of
September demanding an interview. These individuals often married
shortly after playing the diversity visa lottery, listed the same
intending residential address in the United States, reported being
born in Togo, and claimed Nigerian nationality. They all claimed to
be from the same tribe in Nigeria and their documents (marriage
certificate, birth certificates) where Nigerian, where fraud is so
rampant it is impossible to verify vital documents. Many of the
applicants spoke only broken English, yet all claimed to be high
school graduates. In one of these instances, it was discovered that
the applicant's husband had been previously arrested by Togolese
authorities through the U.S. Embassy for his role in producing
fraudulent documents for a number of other diversity visa applicants
(2008). Both he and the principal applicant were denied. In the
last two months of the fiscal year, Post interviewed over two dozen
couples who married on December 31, 2007, seven of which were
Nigerian. Verification of these marriage certificates revealed that
the registers were not at the central archives. An onsite visit to
the local registrar's office was also unsuccessful in locating the
marriage certificates. In some cases, these couples also presented
children as theirs; however, interviews revealed that the couples
knew little about the children.


6. ACS AND PASSPORT FRAUD: Post experienced little ACS fraud this
semester. During the reporting period, a total of seven
applications for Consular Report of Birth Abroad were received. Of
these, four cases were requested to provide DNA confirmation. Two
of the submitted tests have been returned confirming paternity,
while post awaits the result of the remaining two cases. A single
case of identity theft was reported to the embassy by the airport's
immigration office. The individual was an American citizen trying to
board an Air France flight with a young lady that he presented as
his wife. Both subjects were denied access to the flight. After
many interviews conducted by the immigration officer, the couple
confessed that the female traveler was not the owner of the
passport. Both passports were confiscated and sent to the Embassy
while the two individuals were sent to jail. Verification in PIERS
confirmed that both passports were authentic. After several days of
detention, both subjects were released. When the American citizen
came to the Embassy to request that his passport be returned, he
confessed to RSO that the second passport belonged to his wife who
is currently in the United States. His passport was returned to him
while his wife's passport was kept by Post, with a lookout hit
entered into ACS Plus/PLOT.


7. ADOPTION FRAUD: Post has not received any adoption cases since
Togo resumed national and international adoptions last December.
However, Post was asked to verify an adoption decree for Cotonou,
which was confirmed to be fraudulent. Post has also seen fake
adoption decrees submitted in support of IR2 petitions. It appears
that many American citizens (and Togolese) believe that a parental
delegation or a child custody order issued by the Togolese court is
equivalent to an adoption decree, thus revealing the need for Post
to do more outreach to those intending to adopt in Togo. Post is
still seeking to clarify whether Togo is recognized as party to the
Hague Convention on Inter-Country adoptions.


8. DNA TESTING: DNA testing continues to be recommended in the many
IV and V92 follow-to-join cases when a child is involved, and when
the beneficiary has limited knowledge of the petitioner. In the
reporting period, Post has received few negative results. In the
past fiscal year, only 3% of DNA test results received at Post were
negative. In total, 121 DNA tests were conducted over the last
year, four of which were associated with applications for Consular
Report of Birth Abroad.


9. ASYLUM AND OTHER DHS BENEFITS FRAUD: Post had far fewer asylum
related investigations over the last fiscal year, compared to the
prior three years. Post was asked by DHS to investigate civil
documents like birth, death and marriage certificates, and a
Togolese passport. All the documents in question were either fake or
were impossible to verify because the registers were not found. DHS
verifications represent only 1% of the overall FPU workload.
However, these verifications were complex and required upcountry
trips to remote villages of Togo where office administration rules
are usually not observed.


10. ALIEN SMUGGLING, TRAFFICKING, ORGANIZED CRIME, AND TERRORIST
TRAVEL: Post was notified that a West African woman living in New
Jersey was found guilty of smuggling in more than 20 Togolese and
Ghanaian girls into the United States beginning in 2002. The
children, some as young as 10-years-old, were forced to braid hair
up to 14 hours a day at salons in New Jersey. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement began investigating the human-trafficking
operation in 2007 and the ring leader, a Togolese native, was found
guilty by a federal jury in early October of 22 counts, including
conspiracy to commit forced labor, smuggle illegal aliens and visa
fraud. The U.S. Attorney's office said that the girls were smuggled
in to U.S. after attending a virtual "visa-fraud school," in Lome,
where the girls were coached to trick embassy officials into
believing they were spouses or children of people who won visas
through the DV lottery program.


11. DS CRIMINAL FRAUD INVESTIGATIONS: Post has been working
cooperatively with DS on several cases involving visa fraud and
former DV winners who are currently in the military. In these cases,
the original DV winners added spouses after they played the lottery
in 2004-2005, emigrated with these new spouses, joined the military
immediately, divorced their spouses within a few months of arrival
to the U.S, returned to Togo and remarried and filed expedited
petitions for new spouses. In one of these case, during the
interview with the beneficiary (the second spouse),it became clear
that the relationship had existed long before the first marriage.
Post was contacted by U.S. military officials requesting additional
information on several of these petitions because they suspected
visa fraud has taken place in obtaining the original DV2 visa.


12. HOST COUNTRY PASSPORT, IDENTITY DOCUMENTS AND CIVIL
REGISTRY: Document Fraud continues to be rampant at Post. Post
routinely encounters irregularities in the issuance of civil
documents, especially at the Vital Statistics Bureaus and in the
courts. Many documents are not valid because the law and procedures
have not been followed by the civil servants or the judges. Many
Togolese lack information about the correct procedures for obtaining
civil documents. In addition, the belief that one always needs an
intermediary drives unsuspecting people into fraud rings. For
example, the holder of a fake passport arrested in Amsterdam was
lured into a fraud ring because he was in a hurry to renew his
expired passport. In the past six months, fraud trends that have
been observed include: documents which were signed by officials
unauthorized to do so, legal documents that were obviously or
discretely altered by civil servants, and marriage by proxy
permitted by civil servants despite being prohibited by Togolese
law. Many foreigners pay to establish a birth, death or marriage
certificate in Togo, but do not appear in court or at the registrar.
They rely upon the visa fixer to obtain all the necessary documents
on their behalf. The Fraud Unit discovered a large number of
back-dated marriage certificates issued and officially recognized by
a civil servant.


13. COOPERATION WITH HOST GOVERNMENT AUTHORITIES: Post continues to
work closely with the host Government on issues pertaining to visa
fraud. Due to the many problems encountered with vital statistics
bureaus, Post will organize a fraud workshop in November with
mayors, archives and office managers, immigration officers, airline
staff and other missions, to inform, educate and help combat fraud
in Togo. Post has reached out the British High Commission as well as
local missions in the hopes of exchanges tips and fostering an
increase in collaboration. Post has also asked DHS in Accra to
participate and offer tips.


14. AREAS OF PARTICULAR CONCERN: Post is working on strategies to
determine the validity of marriages or fiance relationships without
having to go on lengthy site visits which yield mixed results. Post
is also looking at how to deal with the Nigerian visa fraud ring
based in Lom. Post may begin referring cases where applicants have
few ties to Togo, back to Nigeria for adjudication.


15. STAFFING AND TRAINING: During this reporting period, all
consular positions involved in fraud investigation have remained
filled. As such, Post has not encountered any staffing issues.
Apart from the aforementioned fraud workshop, which will be
beneficial to all consular team members, the consular assistant in
charge of Immigrant Visas will be attending fraud training (PC 542)
in November. Post is looking forward to other FSI or regional
training opportunities for other consular staff.

HAWKINS