A 39-year-old Seattle man who came to the United States from Afghanistan, worked for a US defence contractor and later became a US citizen has been arrested on a six-count federal indictment that accuses him of running a years-long scheme to win immigration status for friends and family members with fake recommendation letters, fake employee badges and false statements to officials. Mustafa Aman was arrested in Seattle and was due to appear in US District Court in Seattle at 2 p.m. on the day of his arrest, Acting US Attorney Charles Neil Floyd announced. Every charge is an allegation: Aman is presumed innocent unless prosecutors prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Source: US Department of Justice, US Attorney's Office, Western District of Washington
According to the indictment, the alleged scheme ran for more than a decade — prosecutors say Aman began submitting false information to government agencies as early as 2013 and continued the conspiracy into 2024. That span matters: it covers the final years of the US mission in Afghanistan, the 2021 withdrawal, and the period when Afghan Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) applications surged, a programme built for Afghans who worked for or on behalf of the US government and faced danger because of that service.
What prosecutors say Aman did
The indictment alleges that Aman used his knowledge of the immigration system — and his knowledge of a United States defence contractor — to help friends and family members obtain status by fraud. Prosecutors say he drafted fake letters of recommendation, helped others create fake employee badges and letters of support, and made false statements to public officials, including members of the State Department and congressional staff. In his own application, prosecutors allege, he submitted a false statement saying he was single when he was in fact already married.
The indictment walks through the alleged letters year by year. In 2014, Aman allegedly provided a fake recommendation letter to a co-conspirator for use in that person's Special Immigrant Visa application — the individual had not worked for any American company in Afghanistan, prosecutors say, but used Aman's draft to claim he had worked for the same company Aman knew. In 2016, Aman allegedly provided a forged letter of recommendation for a different person. And in 2022, prosecutors allege, he again helped two other people with false letters of recommendation and false employment information as they tried to obtain Afghan Special Immigrant Visas.
The charges, count by count
Beyond the conspiracy charge, Aman is charged with making a false statement in a passport application and with using a passport secured by a false statement — both tied to the alleged repeated false statements about his marital status. He is also charged with two counts of submitting false writing, for the forged letters of recommendation prosecutors say he prepared for non-citizens seeking visas. Conspiracy to defraud the United States is punishable by up to five years in prison; the Justice Department's announcement lists that figure and does not state a combined maximum for all counts.
What the officials said
Acting US Attorney Floyd said: “Immigration fraud is a serious problem, and this is just one example. It is disturbing that this defendant repeatedly took advantage of our country's generosity. This person, who helped the US in Afghanistan, allegedly used fraud at every step of the process to bring others from Afghanistan to this country. Mr Aman was granted citizenship because he was considered a trusted ally to the United States. Sadly, he exploited our generosity and used it against us.” FBI Seattle Special Agent in Charge W. Mike Herrington said Aman “is charged with using his position and special knowledge of the US immigration process to cheat the system for his own benefit, and that of his family and friends,” and said prosecutors hope the indictment reminds people of the consequences of defrauding the United States and of “the importance of seeking American citizenship in a lawful way.”
The Afghan SIV programme exists for people who genuinely served alongside US forces — interpreters, contractors and staff whose lives were at risk for that service. Fraudulent recommendation letters do two kinds of damage at once: they let unqualified applicants jump a queue that real applicants wait years in, and they give ammunition to claims that the whole programme is corrupt, which is already fuelling calls in Washington this month for a fresh review of Afghan visa holders before they become eligible for citizenship. For Punjabi and other South Asian families in the Seattle area and across Washington state, the practical lesson is the one the FBI stated: status obtained through a fixer or a forged letter can unravel years later — even after citizenship — when an indictment reaches back, as this one does, to 2013.
Background: the SIV programme and the fraud debate around it
The Special Immigrant Visa programme allows Afghans who worked for or supported the US government in Afghanistan to settle in the United States; reporting this month has put the number of Afghan SIV holders at more than 70,000, with green cards attached to the status and eligibility for citizenship after five years. Whistleblowers cited in recent reporting allege the letter-of-recommendation system at the heart of the programme was widely abused, with fixers selling forged letters — claims that remain allegations in that reporting, but which form the backdrop against which a case built entirely on allegedly forged recommendation letters will be read in Washington. Aman's case is narrower and older than the post-2021 debate: prosecutors say his own alleged conduct started in 2013, long before the Kabul evacuation.
Who is investigating, and what happens next
The case is being investigated by the FBI and the US Department of State, and is being prosecuted by Assistant US Attorneys Amanda McDowell and Ben Lauenroth in the Western District of Washington. Aman's first appearance was scheduled for 2 p.m. in US District Court in Seattle on the day of his arrest; the next steps are arraignment, where he will enter a plea to the six counts, and the setting of a trial schedule. The Justice Department's announcement carries the standard warning that an indictment contains only allegations. Awaaz Punjab will report the plea and any detention decision from the Seattle court.