Former Hamilton school superintendent pleads guilty to forging documents to get his children US citizenship

 
Just a little something likely to amuse many expats
Really, it boggles the mind……..would appear nothing further reached the Consulate.
Those kids don’t know how lucky they are!

 

Excerpts:

Patrick Rocco’s case, which the judge called “puzzling,” leaves loose ends that Thursday’s court proceeding failed to answer.

Topping the list is why Rocco, who had a good career, no criminal record and a history of community service, broke the law to qualify his kids for dual citizenship.

While looking into the expenses, Figeuiredo inadvertently discovered emails between Rocco and Patrick Elliott, a vice-principal with the board, that hatched a plan to alter documents for the citizenship applications.

Rocco’s children are now aged 22, 21 and 19. He has been married 24 years.

On Jan. 5, 2015, Rocco, who was born in the United States, received correspondence from the U.S. Consulate in response to his inquiry about obtaining US citizenship for his children.

The consulate outlined the criteria, which included that one parent needed to be a U.S. citizen at the time of the child’s birth and living in the U.S. for periods totalling five years prior to the child’s birth, at least two of which were after the parent’s 14th birthday.

Rocco, who lived in Canada continuously since 1970 and has dual citizenship, did not meet the criteria.

On July 14, 2015 Rocco sent an email to Elliott that said: “I will call you, but need to change address on a PDF — I have the original as well that I scanned — any thoughts? Need to put in my US address and will explain.”

A series of email exchanges over the next month has Rocco sending two Niagara University documents to Elliott asking him to change the address he lived at while he was a student there from one in Niagara Falls, Ont. (where he actually lived from April 1977 to December 1986) to one in Lewiston, N.Y., where he fraudulently said he lived from 1984 to 1987.

On Aug. 4, 2017, Rocco was arrested by Hamilton police…..charged with two counts of making forged documents and two counts of using forged documents.

Court heard there was no evidence of plans to use the citizenships for financial gain or to jeopardize U.S. security.

“This was the misguided result of an effort to give broader options to his children,” Rocco’s lawyer told the court, without elaborating.