Feds charge 3 current or former Louisiana police chiefs in an alleged visa fraud scheme

Source: Associated Press

Feds charge 3 current or former Louisiana police chiefs in an alleged visa fraud scheme

By SARA CLINE and JIM MUSTIAN
Updated 4:06 PM EDT, July 16, 2025

ATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Federal authorities have charged three current or former Louisiana police chiefs with taking 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.

The false police reports would indicate that the immigrant was a victim of a crime that would qualify them to apply for a so-called U visa, U.S. Attorney Alexander C. Van Hook said Wednesday at a news conference in Lafayette. He said the police officials were paid $5,000 for each name they provided falsified reports for, and that there were hundreds of names.

There had been “an unusual concentration of armed robberies of people who were not from Louisiana,” Van Hook said, noting that two other people were also charged in the alleged scheme.

“In fact, the armed robberies never took place,” he said.

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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/louisiana-visa-fraud-police-chiefs-charges-5b186fac2a61cb7266087c8cd7f00621