Some of Carroll’s clients turned criminal - prosecutors
Stabroek News
May 21, 2002
Federal prosecutors in the US claimed in a US Court last month that some of the persons sold visas by ex-diplomat Thomas Carroll between 1999-2000 committed crimes in the US including drug crimes.
A Chicago Sun Times report said that prosecutors told a Chicago court at a sentence hearing for the ex-diplomat that because a number of those to whom he sold visas used aliases it was almost impossible for the immigration authorities to track them.
Carroll and his local accomplice, West Demerara businessman Halim Khan were arrested in March 2000 after investigations by federal authorities uncovered their visa sale ring.
Carroll was arrested in a Chicago suburb at his parents’ home and Khan was arrested in Miami. Khan was identified when he approached Benedict Wolff, whom Carroll had attempted to recruit and who tipped off the authorities about it.
Wolff was Carroll’s successor as head of the non-immigrant visa section. At the time of his arrest, Carroll surrendered US$1 million in cash and gold bars he had stashed in safety deposit boxes at a number of banks in the US. Both Carroll and Khan pleaded guilty to being involved in the sale of hundreds of US visas.
A Chicago Tribune report on the hearing said that federal prosecutors were seeking a stiff sentence claiming that the September 11 terrorist attacks have shown his action to be a serious breach of security. They have asked for a sentence of more than 15 years and he could be sentenced as early as today.
The report said that the prosecutors said that Carroll’s activities had embarrassed then US ambassador, James Mack, who had been waging an 18-month campaign to convince the Guyanese public that the US visa application process was fair.
Carroll reportedly told the authorities that most of the visas he illegally issued went to young eager people looking to work and make a better life for themselves in the US.
The prosecutors said too that to conceal his illegal activities, Carroll rejected many legitimate requests. During the investigations, the consular section was closed for two months shutting off visas to businessmen and tourists and disrupting diplomatic relations between the two countries.
The prosecutors also told the court that Carroll employed members of the Target Special Squad, popularly known as the Black Clothes Police to intimidate his foes and that he personally threatened those who endangered his scheme. A member of the squad was summoned as a material witness.
Carroll’s lawyer, Sheldon Nagelberg told the court that his client agreed to become part of the pervasive corruption in Guyana and that his misconduct must be seen in the context of the Guyana’s poverty, crime and violence.