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Associated Press with a report from Josh Wingrove
Last updated on Thursday, Jul. 30, 2009 04:18AM EDT
A former official at Toronto's U.S. consulate was sentenced to one year in prison yesterday for expediting visas in exchange for jewellery and a trip to Las Vegas with three dancers from a local strip club.
Michael John O'Keefe Sr., 62, admitted that he fast-tracked 21 visas between 2004 and 2006 for employees of a jewellery company, STS Jewels. In return, he was given gifts from the company's chief executive officer, Sunil Agrawal.
Mr. O'Keefe received at least four rings and a necklace made of gold, rubies, diamonds and tanzanite for his wife. He went to New York with two exotic dancers and to Las Vegas with three strippers from the Brass Rail Tavern. In e-mails to Mr. Agrawal, he went as far as to suggest gift ideas.
Mr. Agrawal, a native of India now living in New York, told the court in Washington that he didn't realize providing such gifts was a conflict of interest.
The 50-year-old jewel dealer got probation and a $100,000 (U.S.) fine - said by prosecutors to be one of the largest ever imposed for the misdemeanour charge of illegal supplementation of salary.
Mr. O'Keefe was sentenced to the felony charge of accepting an illegal gratuity. He must return the jewellery and pay $5,000 for the trips, including the one with the women from the Brass Rail, a frequent haunt of his when he lived in Toronto from 2003 to 2006.
The jewel company had a Canadian office based in a Mississauga home, which, at the time of Mr. O'Keefe's arrest in 2006, appeared to have once been registered to a family for which he fast-tracked U.S. visas.
Mr. O'Keefe pleaded guilty in February. The judge recognized his service - 22 years at the State Department and stints in the Air Force, the New Hampshire State House and as a professor at Southern New Hampshire University, which fired him after his guilty plea - but said the one-year prison term was meant to demonstrate that bribery will not be tolerated among U.S. government workers.
Mr. O'Keefe had told the judge he was unhappy at work and being treated for depression at the time of the crime.
"I knew these were inappropriate gifts and I never should have accepted them," he said. "To this day, I don't know why."
Last updated on Thursday, Jul. 30, 2009 04:18AM EDT
A former official at Toronto's U.S. consulate was sentenced to one year in prison yesterday for expediting visas in exchange for jewellery and a trip to Las Vegas with three dancers from a local strip club.
Michael John O'Keefe Sr., 62, admitted that he fast-tracked 21 visas between 2004 and 2006 for employees of a jewellery company, STS Jewels. In return, he was given gifts from the company's chief executive officer, Sunil Agrawal.
Mr. O'Keefe received at least four rings and a necklace made of gold, rubies, diamonds and tanzanite for his wife. He went to New York with two exotic dancers and to Las Vegas with three strippers from the Brass Rail Tavern. In e-mails to Mr. Agrawal, he went as far as to suggest gift ideas.
Mr. Agrawal, a native of India now living in New York, told the court in Washington that he didn't realize providing such gifts was a conflict of interest.
The 50-year-old jewel dealer got probation and a $100,000 (U.S.) fine - said by prosecutors to be one of the largest ever imposed for the misdemeanour charge of illegal supplementation of salary.
Mr. O'Keefe was sentenced to the felony charge of accepting an illegal gratuity. He must return the jewellery and pay $5,000 for the trips, including the one with the women from the Brass Rail, a frequent haunt of his when he lived in Toronto from 2003 to 2006.
The jewel company had a Canadian office based in a Mississauga home, which, at the time of Mr. O'Keefe's arrest in 2006, appeared to have once been registered to a family for which he fast-tracked U.S. visas.
Mr. O'Keefe pleaded guilty in February. The judge recognized his service - 22 years at the State Department and stints in the Air Force, the New Hampshire State House and as a professor at Southern New Hampshire University, which fired him after his guilty plea - but said the one-year prison term was meant to demonstrate that bribery will not be tolerated among U.S. government workers.
Mr. O'Keefe had told the judge he was unhappy at work and being treated for depression at the time of the crime.
"I knew these were inappropriate gifts and I never should have accepted them," he said. "To this day, I don't know why."
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