A bribery scheme involving illegal green cards and state tax abatement ended in the sentencing of a former Pakistani to four years in federal prison this week, federal prosecutors said.
Mohammad Ijaz, 43, of Snow Hill in Worcester, pleaded guilty to bribing U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service officials for six green cards and participating in a bribery scheme for Eastern Shore convenience stores trying to avoid state taxes.
Ijaz became a U.S. citizen in March 1997 and owned Chicken Man Food Store in Snow Hill.
From 2005 to 2007, Ijaz and his co-conspirators gave more than $900,000 to a federal witness who was expected to deliver the bribes to an immigration official for green cards and a Maryland comptroller official for the release of more than $1.8 million in state sales and use taxes assessed against Chicken Man and other convenience stores,prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said the witness gave the bribes to federal law enforcement agents.
“When we hear about immigration, we here so much about the border fence, but the bigger concern is how we give out citizenship and residency to immigrants,” said Mike Cutler, a former Immigration and Naturalization Service agent.
“We end up giving them the keys to the kingdom, and there?s no integrity to it because [government officials] are so overwhelmed by the amount of paper they?re going through every day.”
Though no corrupt officials were involved in Ijaz?s scheme, Cutler said, it?s not unheard of for government officials to “succumb to bribery.”
“In so many [developing] countries, bribery is a major fact of life,” he said. “So many people come to the U.S. predisposed to providing bribes and thinking that?s how to do business.”
U.S. District Judge Marvin Garbis ordered Ijaz to forfeit his ownership of Chicken Man and hand over $249,132.06. Garbis also imposed three years of supervised release.
