Carroll visa scam convict, returns
Deported but free
Stabroek News
April 4, 2003
Haleem Khan who was convicted in the United States last year for his part in the Thomas Carroll visa sale ring arrived back in Guyana a free man yesterday.
Khan arrived on a BW 425 flight at 2.30 pm and stepped from the aircraft unescorted and smartly dressed in tan slacks and black blazer. As he walked to the arrival lounge from the plane he waved to his wife Radha, his daughter, his sister and nieces who were looking out for him from the viewing platform.
Khan was sentenced to three years jail by a US District Court in Chicago but was given credit for the time he was incarcerated since his March 17, 2001 arrest in Miami. He was released late last year and opted for voluntary deportation. In his eagerness to return here he wrote President Bharrat Jagdeo protesting the time the Guyana embassy in Washington DC was taking to process his application for a travel document since it already had his passport which he had sent for renewal.
In addition to his sentence Khan forfeited US$250,000 as part of his plea bargaining arrangement for a lighter sentence on account of his co-operation with the federal authorities in their investigation. However, the US government has as yet made no move to seize his assets in Guyana in satisfaction of the amount. Stabroek News has been unable to ascertain whether he had given any assets he had in the US to satisfy the fine.
Khan was the accomplice of former US embassy official Thomas Carroll the mastermind of the visa sale ring. Carroll is presently serving a more than 22- year sentence in addition to forfeiting US$1m in cash and gold bars seized from a number of bank accounts and safe deposit boxes in the US.
Khan, Stabroek News was informed, arrived with two other deportees and according to Police Commissioner Floyd McDonald would be processed like any other deportee and could be subjected “to possibly other procedures”.
The processing took more than two hours and immigration officials refused to say whether or not he would be released there or even acknowledge that he was being processed.
The frustrated media then abandoned their stakeout at the airport, leaving his wife and relatives patiently waiting in the airport car park in the event he was being released right away.
In his proffer statement and testimony in court, Khan had implicated a number of police officers and local businessmen.
One of the businessmen was arrested in September 2001 in the US on a material witness warrant issued earlier that month. He was arraigned in Brooklyn, New York and his bail was set at US$75,000. The case was subsequently transferred to Chicago.
The Police had also seized property belonging to Khan including a vehicle which was improperly licensed but Stabroek News has been unable to ascertain whether or not Khan’s property was returned.
