LOS ANGELES
A federal judge Thursday sentenced a personality on a Persian-language television network who formerly acted as an “immigration consultant” to one year and one day in federal prison for paying cash bribes to corrupt U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officers.
The money was paid in exchange for the immigration officers approving applications for citizenship.
U.S. District Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald sentenced Vida Heravi, 59, of Beverly Hills, who co-hosts a talk show host on the Tapesh TV Network.
Heravi plead guilty in May to one count of conspiracy to bribe public officials employed by Immigration Services. When she pleaded guilty, Heravi specifically admitted paying at least $39,000 in cash bribes to corrupt immigration officers, according to officials.
During the course of the scheme, corrupt immigration officers approved the applications of ineligible aliens to become naturalized citizens, typically receiving $1,000 per alien.
Heravi paid at least $39,000 on behalf of 43 ineligible aliens.
Heravi also admitted in court that she submitted to Immigration Services at least 20 fraudulent medical waivers that falsely indicated a doctor had diagnosed the aliens as suffering from conditions that exempted them from the English-reading and language requirements in the naturalization process.
Heravi used the fraudulent medical waivers to assist the corrupt USCIS officers in evading detection and to mislead other officers.
The USCIS officers accepted cash in exchange for falsely certifying that immigrants had met requirements for citizenship such as “passing” the English competency and civics portions of the naturalization interview and examination administered by Immigration Services, officials said.
The corrupt immigration service also accepted the fraudulent medical waivers without questioning the interviewing aliens’ medical disability.
Another woman charged in the bribery conspiracy along with Heravi in a grand jury indictment – Mohdeh Erfani, 50, of Irvine – has pleaded guilty and is pending sentencing, according to officials.
Previously in this investigation, former Immigration Services officer Daniel Espejo Amos was sentenced to three years in federal prison for taking bribes from Heravi and other immigration consultants.