Debashis Ghosh, a 62-year-old Indian-American businessman, may lose his U.S. citizenship as the Justice Department joins 11 others in revoking his citizenship. Ghosh committed wire fraud before and after becoming a U.S. citizen in 2012 and was convicted after naturalization, but he concealed the crime during the naturalization process.Before Debashis Ghosh’s naturalization, he conspired to defraud investors out of $2.5 million to build an aircraft maintenance facility. After naturalization, Ghosh, an Indian, continued his fraudulent scheme by misrepresenting the location and custody of investors’ funds, the documents said.But in his 2012 naturalization application and interview, Ghosh claimed that he had never committed any crime for which he had not been arrested.Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, a naturalized U.S. citizen may have his or her citizenship revoked and his or her certificate of naturalization revoked if the naturalization was obtained illegally or by concealment of material facts or intentional misrepresentation.The denaturalization complaint against Ghosh said he was deprived of his nationality because he committed the crime of “moral turpitude, committing an unlawful act prejudicial to his moral character and testifying falsely about his crimes” during a period when he was legally required to demonstrate good moral character.Furthermore, Ghosh deliberately misrepresented the facts of his criminal conduct during the naturalization proceedings.
Who is Debashis Ghosh?
Since 1991, Debashis Ghosh has entered the United States multiple times on various non-immigrant visas. In 2001, an employer applied for a green card on his behalf. In 2012, Ghosh applied for citizenship. The Justice Department said he was specifically asked whether he had committed a crime or offenses for which he was not arrested. He said “no”. He maintained his position in all other subsequent interviews and became a U.S. citizen.In 2016, he was indicted along with a co-conspirator on charges of conspiring to commit wire fraud that occurred between 2010 and 2014. In 2017, Ghosh was found guilty.
What is fraud?
Co-conspirator Keith Eric Jergensen and Ghosh are co-chief executives of Verdant Capital Group in Chicago. New York-based Laurentian Aerospace Corporation hired Verdant to raise funds for an aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul facility to be built at the former U.S. Air Force base in Plattsburgh. Jergensen and Ghosh asked Laurentian to invest $2.5 million in seed funding for the project. They and Laurentian agreed that the money would remain in the Wells Fargo account and not be transferred without Laurentian’s authorization.Jergensen and Ghosh also misappropriated $2.4 million in funds entrusted to them by other businesses. In December 2010, Laurentian used funds provided by members of its board of directors and an outside investor to wire $2.5 million into a Wells Fargo account. Five days later, Jergensen and Ghosh began transferring funds out of the account without Laurentian’s authorization, and by March 2011, they had transferred all $2.5 million out of the account.Jergensen and Ghosh used $2.5 million of Laurentian’s money to pay Verdant’s expenses, including employees and contractors, and to pay others. The pair then spent years falsely assuring Laurentian and his investors that their funds were safe and secure, with Jergenson even forging a memorandum of understanding purporting to show Laurentian’s funds were held in a secure bank account at Wells Fargo.Victimized investors include a retired U.S. Air Force colonel, a former New York City deputy mayor, a retired law firm partner and several retired executives from the financial and aviation industries.