Indian-American businessman Debashish Ghosh will lose his US citizenship due to past fraud.
62-year-old Indian-American businessman Debashish Ghosh is likely to lose his US citizenship as the Justice Department moved to denaturalize him along with 11 other individuals. Ghosh committed wire fraud before and after becoming a US citizen in 2012 and was convicted after naturalization but concealed the crime during the naturalization process.Before Debashish Ghosh came to the country, he conspired to defraud investors of $2.5 million for the construction of an aircraft maintenance facility. After naturalization, Ghosh, a native of India, continued the fraudulent scheme, misrepresenting the location and security of investor funding, the documents said.But in his 2012 naturalization application and interview, Ghosh claimed that he had never committed any crime or offenses for which he had not been arrested.Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, a naturalized U.S. citizen’s citizenship may be revoked, and the certificate of naturalization may be revoked, if the naturalization was obtained illegally or by concealment or willful misrepresentation of any material fact.The denaturalization complaint against Ghosh alleged that he was subject to denaturalization because during the period when he was statutorily required to demonstrate good moral character, he “committed a crime involving moral turpitude, committed unlawful acts that adversely affected his moral character, and gave false testimony regarding his guilt.”Additionally, Ghosh knowingly misrepresented the material facts of his crime during his naturalization proceedings.
Who is Debashish Ghosh?
Debashish Ghosh entered the US several times since 1991 on various non-immigrant visas. In 2001, an employer applied for his green card. In 2012, Ghosh applied for citizenship. The Justice Department said he was explicitly asked whether he had ever committed a crime or offenses for which he had not been arrested. He said, no’. He maintained his stance in all other subsequent interviews and became a US citizen.In 2016, he was convicted of conspiring with a co-conspirator to commit wire fraud that occurred from 2010 to 2014. Ghosh was found guilty in 2017.
What was the fraud?
Co-conspirators Keith Eric Jergensen and Ghosh were co-chief executives of Chicago-based Verdant Capital Group. New York-based firm Laurentian Aerospace Corporation had retained Verdant to raise funds for the construction of an airplane maintenance, repair and overhaul facility to be built on the former U.S. Air Force base in Plattsburgh. Jergensen and Ghosh asked Laurentian to invest $2.5 million as seed money for the project. He and Laurentian agreed that the money would remain in a Wells Fargo account and could not be transferred without Laurentian’s permission.Jurgensen and Ghosh misused $2.4 million of excess funds that other businesses had entrusted to them. Laurentian, using money contributed by its board members and an outside investor, paid $2.5 million into a Wells Fargo account in December 2010. Five days later, Jergensen and Ghosh began transferring money from the account without Laurentian’s permission, and by March 2011 they had transferred the entire $2.5 million from the account.Jergensen and Ghosh used $2.5 million of Laurentian’s money to pay Verdant’s expenses and pay others, including employees and contractors. The two then spent several years falsely assuring Laurentian and its investors that their money was safe, with Jergensen going so far as to draw up a memorandum of understanding intended to make it appear that Laurentian’s money was in a secure bank account at Wells Fargo.The victimized investors included a retired US Air Force colonel, a former deputy mayor of New York City, a retired law firm partner, and several retired executives from the financial and airline industries.