Middle East News: US Embassy Worker in Yemen Accused of Giving Out Fake Visas With Fake Oil Company Name
The Feds are investigating a potential security breach that involved a U.S. embassy worker issuing at least 50 fake visas to Yemeni people entering the United States.
According to a criminal complaint in Brooklyn Federal Court cited by New York Daily News, the worker identified as a Yemeni national took bribes and submitted visa applications that claimed the applicants were entering the U.S. for an oil industry conference in Houston.
Department of Homeland Security officials got a tip in August and closely watched an employee who submitted paperwork for Yemeni citizens who acted like they worked for Yemeni oil companies, according to Yahoo. The State Department's security service figured out that the oil companies named on the visas did not exist, and none of the applicants went to the conference.
One applicant, Abdulmalek Musleh Alzobaidi, flew into Kennedy Airport on April 24 from Yemen, a country plagued with Islamic extremism. He presented a nonimmigrant visa that stated that he worked for a fake oil company named Jaber Oil Co.
"[The State Department] received information from the Yemeni Ministry of Commerce and Information confirming that the Jaber Oil Company is not a registered or legitimate company in Yemen," Special Agent Bert Seay stated in the criminal complaint.
Alzobaidi never went to Houston, according to the criminal complaint, and instead worked in the Bronx at a grocery store on Tremont Ave. He was later arrested without bail for visa fraud.
Alzobaidi's lawyer, Patrick Brackley, said that his client is a hardworking man who was just pursuing the American Dream.
"Obviously there is a fear that some heavy people got into the country," Brackley said, referring to possible terrorists. "There are no other issues related to this fellow."
Al Qaeda in The Arabian Peninsula operates in Yemen.
It is not clear if any of the fake visas are connected to terrorism.
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