U.N. Translator Sells Fake U.S. Visas

A translator at the corruption-plagued United Nations has been arrested for using his position at the renowned organization to operate a visa fraud scheme that allowed more than a dozen foreigners to enter the U.S. illegally.

The translator, a Russian citizen named Vyacheslav Manokhin, lived in Manhattan and used U.N. stationery to help at least 14 foreigners enter the U.S. illegally by creating fraudulent documents so they could obtain visas to attend conferences that that didn’t even exist.

Manokhin misrepresented that the U.N. supported the fake visa applications so that aliens could attend the bogus conferences that he claimed were organized by non-government organizations. He even signed U.N. documents in the name of a nonexistent official.

Federal prosecutors say this U.N. ring, which began operating in mid 2005, is part of a huge global network that creates fake documents for people willing to pay as much as $15,000 to enter the United States.

Incredibly, U.N. officials have confirmed that Manokhin, who has lived in the country for nearly two decades, has not been suspended from his job. This may not seem surprising considering that scandals are par for the course at the ailing world body.

In the last few years alone, several U.N. officials have been charged with accepting bribes, a lengthy Congressional report found severe mismanagement, waste, fraud and abuse at the U.N. and its crooked secretary general (Kofi Anan) was exposed for securing secret multi million-dollar deals for his son.

Who could forget the scandalous U.N. Iraqi oil-for-food program that allowed Saddam Hussein to generate more than $10 billion in illegal revenues and purchase large quantities of detergent from terrorist countries?

With an annual $8 billion contribution of American taxpayer money, U.S. officials have a duty to investigate and help clean up the rampant corruption and misuse of funds at the U.N. Perhaps they can also apply pressure to prosecute those who use the infested organization to sell access to our country.

Judicial Watch is a non-partisan, educational foundation dedicated to fighting government and judicial corruption and promoting a return to ethics and morality in our nation’s public life. To view the Judicial Watch Internet site click here (www.judicialwatch.org).