Judge upturns bail decision for Carroll
A CHICAGO Judge yesterday reversed a decision by another Court this week to grant Guyana U.S. Embassy visa scam accused Thomas Carroll US$350,000 bail. The Chronicle also understands that Carroll's lawyers have hinted that there may not be a trial and that the former Embassy official may be willing to plead guilty. However, officials believe that it is still too early to make a determination on this. When Carroll reappeared in Court yesterday, the government successfully appealed the US$350,000 bail in cash and property granted this week, Public Information Officer for the Assistant U.S. Attorney in Chicago, Mr Randall Samborn told the Chronicle. Samborn said that co-accused Guyanese Halim Khan was also scheduled to return to Court yesterday but his case was postponed tentatively to one week from yesterday, while Carroll will return to Court on June 19. The government successfully argued that if Carroll is released he would pose a threat to witnesses and would flee to avoid prosecution, and the judge agreed. Carroll's lawyers had argued that he be released and confined to his home and monitored electronically. Carroll, in charge of issuing visas at the United States Embassy in Georgetown for a year, has been charged with conspiracy to commit visa fraud; producing false visas and bribery. Authorities have seized about US$1.8M in cash and gold bars from safe-deposit boxes and other investment accounts of Carroll's. The complaints allege that Carroll and Khan were conspiring to sell 250 additional U.S. visas in Guyana in exchange for at least US$1M in bribes in US currency. 
|