NEW YORK: A 37-year-old man from India is set to lose his American citizenship after he was convicted of fraud and not disclosing to immigration authorities that he had sexually abused a 9-year-old child.
Gurpreet Singh of Watertown was sentenced in federal court in Syracuse to three months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release, following a jury trial in January where he was convicted of knowingly obtaining US citizenship through unlawful naturalisation, Acting US Attorney Grant Jaquith said.
Due to this conviction, Singh's US citizenship will be revoked by law.
The trial evidence showed that Singh, who is originally from India, repeatedly affirmed to United States Citizenship and Immigration (USCIS) authorities that he had not committed any crimes for which he was not arrested.
Immigration authorities later learned that Singh sexually abused a 9-year-old child during the same time-period he was applying for US citizenship. Evidence presented at trial showed that Singh deliberately failed to report his criminal activity to USCIS because he knew that the federal agency would not have approved his naturalisation application if the agency had known about his crimes.
Singh pled guilty in New York state court to a single count of sexual abuse of a minor child, after he had become a naturalised US citizen. Singh was arrested by the City of Watertown (New York) Police Department the day after his naturalisation ceremony in April 2012.
While on supervised release following his prison term, Singh will be required to register as a sex offender and will be prohibited from having direct contact with children under the age of 18 and from going to places where children under 18 are likely to congregate, such as parks, libraries, and schools, without prior permission of a probation officer.