General News of Sunday, 28 April 2019

Source: ghanaguardian.com

Ghanaian overstaying visa jailed 2 years in USA for identity theft

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A US court has slapped a two-year jail term on a Ghanaian national for illegal possession of identification documents and aggravated identity theft.

Yaw Okyere, also known as Stephen Okyere Buda, 38, who lives in Worcester, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Timothy S. Hillman to two

He is also likely to be deported to his West African country after serving his sentence, according to the office of U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling.

Okyere had pleaded guilty to charges of possessing five or more false identification documents and aggravated identity theft in January 2018. He was arrested and charged by criminal complaint in March 2018.

Federal agents searched his apartment in Worcester, where they seized computers and a printer. An initial forensic review of one of the computers revealed files containing more than 180 Massachusetts driver’s licenses with various names and photographs, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

During the execution of the search warrant, agents interviewed Mr. Okyere, who told them he was a citizen of Ghana, had arrived in the United States a few years earlier on a visa, had overstayed his visa, and was unsure of his immigration status, the U.S. attorney’s office said.