< back
US EMBASSY WORKER ARRESTED ON CHARGES OF SELLING VISAS
A vice consul at the US Embassy in Georgetown, Guyana, was arrested on Saturday, March 18th, on charges of selling US visas.  Thomas P. Carroll was on vacation when he was arrested at his parents’ home in Chicago.  A search of the home conducted at that time uncovered more than 0,000 in cash and ten gold bars worth about 0,000.  Officials say they have also frozen 12 bank accounts owned by Carroll containing more than 5,000.  They also say that before the arrest Carroll was planning to sell another 120 visas for a total of about  million.  A citizen of Guyana, Halim Khan, who is suspected of have conspired with Carroll in the visa sale scheme, was also arrested as he boarded a plane to leave Miami for Guyana.  
According to investigators with the State Department Diplomatic Security Service, Carroll fell under suspicion last June after receiving word from some visa applicants that they had been asked for bribes.  Carroll was head of the nonimmigrant visa section in Guyana from March 1998 to March 1999.  He was then transferred to the economic and commercial division, but recruited another employee to continue approving visas in exchange for bribes.  This officer is cooperating with the investigation.  
Affidavits filed with the charges of conspiracy and bribery also allege that Carroll made recordings in which he detailed his operation.  Among the information contained on these tapes is how Carroll hid the money, how many visas he approved in exchange for bribes, and that he would often deny acceptable applications to avoid having his scheme uncovered.  
Carroll, 32, is an eight-year veteran of the Foreign Service.  He had previously been stationed in China and, according to investigators, kept some of his financial records in Chinese.  If convicted on the fraud charges, Carroll faces up to 15 years in prison and fines three times the amount he collected in bribes, which would be about .5 million.  The bribery and conspiracy charges carry a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a 0,000 fine.