Three current and former Louisiana police chiefs, a U.S. marshal and a businessman have been federally charged with participating in an immigrant visa fraud scheme, prosecutors announced Wednesday.
A federal grand jury in Shreveport returned a 62-count indictment against the five people on July 2, Acting U.S. Attorney Alexander Van Hook for the Western District of Louisiana said in a news conference Wednesday.
The police chiefs took bribes in exchange for filing false police reports that would allow noncitizens to seek a visa that lets certain crime victims stay in the U.S., Van Hook said.
The five defendants are: Chad Doyle, the chief of police in Oakdale; Michael Slaney, a marshal from the Ward 5 Marshal’s office in Oakdale; Glynn Dixon, the chief of police in Forest Hill; Tebo Onishea, the former chief of police in Glenmora; and Chandrakant Patel, a businessman from Oakdale. They were each charged with conspiracy to commit visa fraud and other charges, prosecutors said in a news release.
Patel was further charged with one count of bribery, 24 counts of mail fraud and eight counts of money laundering.
Doyle and Dixon were further charged with six counts of visa fraud, six counts of mail fraud and one count of money laundering. Slaney was also charged with six counts of visa fraud, six counts of mail fraud, and two counts of money laundering. Onishea was additionally charged with six counts of visa fraud and six counts of mail fraud.
For a decade, from December 2015 to at least this month, prosecutors alleged Patel was a fixer who unlawfully procured nonimmigrant U-visas with the help of law enforcement officials.
The U nonimmigrant status visa is for victims of certain crimes who help law enforcement or government officials investigate those crimes. Part of the application process includes a signature of an authorized official or law enforcement agency confirming the individual was the victim of a qualifying crime, prosecutors said.
Individuals seeking U-visas would contact Patel to be named as “victims” in police reports of an armed robbery, so they could submit applications for U-visas, the indictment alleged.
Those individuals allegedly paid Patel thousands of dollars to participate in the scheme, and Patel would ask alleged co-conspirators Doyle, Slaney, Dixon and Onishea to write false police reports naming the individuals as victims of armed robberies, and provide certification and supporting documents, prosecutors said.
Together they “authored, facilitated, produced and authenticated false police reports” in several central Louisiana parishes, the news release said.
"There was an unusual concentration of armed robberies, a large number of armed robberies of people that were not from Louisiana," Van Hook said. "Well, in fact, the armed robberies never took place, and those listed in the applications were never victims."
Patel allegedly offered to pay an agent of the Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office $5,000 on Feb. 18, “intending to influence and reward said agent in exchange for a fraudulent police report,” prosecutors said.
Van Hook said Patel allegedly paid the law enforcement officers $5,000 for each foreign national placed on police reports, and that were hundreds of such reports.
From Sept. 27, 2023 to Dec. 26, 2024, Doyle Slaney, Dixon and Onishea allegedly submitted false statements in immigration applications by signing I-918B forms despite knowing the individuals were never victims of crimes.
The investigation opened following a tip last July from Citizenship and Immigration Services, and was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, the FBI and IRS, along with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Van Hook said the men were arrested Tuesday by federal law enforcement agents and search warrants were executed at multiple locations including the Oakdale and Forest Hill police departments and a Subway sandwich shop in Oakdale operated by Patel. Officials said Wednesday all were released except Patel.
No attorneys were listed for the defendants in the online court docket. NBC News has reached out to the five men for comment.
The mail fraud charge stems from the five men sending out documents by the U.S. Postal Service.
If convicted the defendants each face up to five years in prison on the conspiracy charge, up to 10 years on the visa fraud charge, up to 20 years on the mail fraud charge, and Patel up to 10 years the bribery charge. They also could be ordered to pay a fine of $250,000 on each count.
The Associated Press contributed reporting.
