Deirdre M. Daly, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that SYED NAQSHBAND, 33, of New Haven, waived his right to indictment and pleaded guilty today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas P. Smith in Hartford to one count of conspiracy to commit marriage fraud.

According to court documents and statements made in court, between July and August 2013, NAQSHBAND persuaded a female friend, who is a U.S. citizen, to travel with him to Pakistan and marry his nephew so that the nephew, a citizen of Pakistan, could enter the U.S. NAQSHBAND offered to help pay the woman’s travel expenses and assured her she would not have to live with his nephew once they returned to the U.S.

The scheme was disrupted just before the planned travel, when the woman, accompanied by NAQSHBAND, applied for a U.S. Passport and the U.S. Passport Office alerted the FBI of certain suspicious observations.

NAQSHBAND faces a maximum term of imprisonment of five years and a fine of up to $250,000 when he is sentenced by U.S. District Judge Vanessa L. Bryant. A sentencing date is not yet scheduled.

This matter is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation Joint Terrorism Task Force, the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, the U.S. Passport Office, Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service’s Office of Fraud Detection and National Security. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Henry K. Kopel.