Former UN translator gets year for visa fraud

Former UN translator gets year for visa fraud

Former UN translator gets year for visa fraud

By DAVID B. CARUSO
Associated Press Writer


NEW YORK (AP) -- A United Nations translator was sentenced to a year in prison for using U.N. stationery and fraudulent documents to smuggle people into the United States from Uzbekistan.

Vyacheslav Manokhin, a Russian national who had been living in Greenwich, Conn., pleaded guilty in March to one count of conspiring to obtain visas by means of false statements.

The visas were supposed to be for foreigners attending U.N. conferences in the U.S., but either the gatherings never took place or the visa holders didn't attend them, prosecutors said. Manokhin forged invitations to the conferences from a nonexistent U.N. official.

He apologized at his sentencing Thursday, though he said he didn't initially think what he did was illegal.

"I learned my lesson. I paid a huge price for this," he said.

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Quote: "I learned my lesson. I paid a huge price for
this," he said.

Thus spake the man who got caught. I doubt he's learned anything, but that he must be more careful the next time so he won't get caught.