Translated material
Translator across the border
American visas were issued using fake UN invitations
Yesterday, the UN Secretariat translator, 45-year-old Russian Vyacheslav Manokhin, appeared before the Federal District Court in Manhattan, accused of visa fraud. If found guilty, he faces up to five years in prison. As the press attache of the Russian permanent mission to the UN, Maria Zakharova, told Vremya Novostei, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon “informed the American authorities about the lifting of diplomatic immunity from Manokhin on July 27. However, the Russian permanent mission was not informed about this.” According to her, the Russian mission to the UN learned about the arrest of the Russian only during a briefing by the official representative of the UN Secretary General.According to VN, Vyacheslav Manokhin came to work at the UN under a contract in the late 1980s and served as a translator, having nothing to do with the activities of the Russian permanent mission. On Smolenskaya Square yesterday it was confirmed that “an employee of the UN translation service, Vyacheslav Manokhin, has never been an employee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.” At the same time, the Foreign Ministry stated that the Russian Consulate General in New York “is ready to provide the necessary protection of the legal rights and interests of the Russian citizen.”
Together with Manokhin, a resident of New Jersey, 44-year-old native of the former USSR, Vladimir Derevyanko, and a citizen of Uzbekistan, 44-year-old Kamiljan Tursunov, are also being charged in the same case. The New York Times yesterday called Derevianko "a Russian who received political asylum in the United States in 2004." According to VN, it is not yet possible to say with absolute certainty whether he retains Russian citizenship. “The local side must officially notify the Russian Consulate General of all facts of detention of Russian citizens. In the case of Derevianko, this was not done,” emphasized VN’s source in New York. In addition to fraud with visa documents, Mr. Derevianko, who works as a translator in a Manhattan law office, is charged with giving false testimony to a federal investigator. He faces a ten-year sentence.
The court set Manokhin's bail for release from custody at $300,000. Vladimir Derevyanko was released on bail at $250,000. Both plead not guilty.
According to investigators, Vyacheslav Manokhin and Vladimir Derevyanko, for money, helped foreigners, primarily citizens of Uzbekistan, obtain entry visas to the United States, using invitations to UN conferences and other events, including non-existent ones, for this purpose. Letters of invitation were printed on UN Development Program letterhead and certified by the signatures of fictitious employees of this UN unit - Leonardo Brackett and Greg Smith. As Deidre Gordon, a senior immigration investigator at the US Department of Homeland Security, said in court, the names of 14 people have now been identified for whom Manokhin and Derevianko, starting in April 2005, tried to obtain American visas in circumvention of the law. In addition, as the New York Times reported, Manokhin is accused of assisting six Ukrainian citizens in illegally obtaining visas to enter France.
It was with the help of Manokhin and Derevianko, according to investigators, that Kamildzhan Tursunov came to the United States. Having paid 15 thousand dollars, he entered the country in June 2005 as a representative of an Uzbek non-governmental organization to participate in a UN conference. In July, Tursunov settled in Florida, where he was arrested on July 25 of this year. It was he who gave testimony to the senior investigator, Ms. Gordon, on the basis of which she brought charges against Manokhin and Derevianko. Tursunov himself is accused of acquiring a fake visa, fraud and participation in a criminal conspiracy.
The names of other residents of Uzbekistan who applied for help in obtaining visas are not disclosed in the interests of the investigation. They were given conventional names like U-7 or U-8. Applications from the UN Development Program did not help four of them. After fake invitations arrived at the US Embassy in Tashkent in 2005, they suspected something was wrong and invited all four of them for an interview. However, none of them ever came.
The investigative materials also mention another mechanism allegedly used by Manokhin. This involves sending out invitations on behalf of a prominent Manhattan law firm to attend a major international legal conference. The invitations were printed on the letterhead of one of the American non-governmental organizations and signed by the “project coordinator” Vyacheslav Manokhin.
The current scandal surrounding a Russian employee of the UN Secretariat recalled the high-profile trial of another Russian, Vladimir Kuznetsov . In March, a New York court found him guilty of accepting bribes and money laundering while serving as chairman of the UN Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions. The indictment dealt with funds illegally obtained through the implementation of the UN Oil for Food program in Iraq. Kuznetsov's sentence is due to be announced on September 4.