Navy Reserve Officer Sentenced to Prison over Afghan Visa Scheme

A Navy Reserve commander who was convicted by a federal court for his role in a yearslong scheme to falsify visa documents for Afghans has been sentenced to more than two years in prison, the Justice Department announced Monday.

Cmdr. Jeromy Pittmann, 53, of Pensacola, Florida, was sentenced to 30 months in prison for accepting "bribe payments from Afghan nationals in exchange for drafting, submitting, and verifying fraudulent letters of recommendation for Afghan nationals" who were applying for Special Immigrant Visas, or SIVs, with the State Department, the statement said.

"This case shows how someone betrayed his sacred oath of office to commit crimes for personal gain, with no regard for how his actions could threaten U.S. homeland security and harm Afghans, who risked their lives to help the United States," John Sopko, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, said in the statement.

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During the four-day trial, federal prosecutors alleged that the Navy officer signed more than 20 false letters of recommendation for visa applications. In those letters, Pittmann claimed to have supervised the Afghan applicants while they worked as translators supporting the U.S. Army and NATO, stated that their lives were in jeopardy and vouched for the lack of threat that they posed to national security.

In exchange, Pittmann received $500 per person, and court documents say that he earned several thousand dollars from the scheme.

The SIVs have always been extremely limited, while demand from Afghans has been high. Congress had to authorize greater numbers of them over the years, and that led to partisan gridlock and debate. Eventually, the wait list for the visas grew into the tens of thousands as slow processing times, driven by low staffing and shoddy recordkeeping by the military and contractors, crept into the system.

That lack of records made it challenging for some Afghans to prove their work with U.S. troops and created an opportunity for forgers.

Pittmann was convicted on four charges that included bribery and concealing a money-laundering operation.

"Pittmann's participation in this bribery scheme not only jeopardized the integrity of the SIV program, which protects our allies, but also introduced significant security risks to our nation," Naval Criminal Investigative Service Special Agent in Charge Greg Gross said in the statement.

Navy records provided to Military.com showed that Pittmann is a Navy Reserve officer with the Navy's combat construction community, commonly known as "Seabees," and that he deployed four times to Afghanistan and once to Iraq since he joined the Navy in 2003.

In July, records showed that he was still in the reserves and, as of February 2022, assigned to Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 22 in Port Hueneme, California. As of Tuesday, there was no indication that he had been discharged from the Navy.

In addition to his campaign medals, Pittmann was awarded the Joint Service Commendation Medal, the Joint Service Achievement Medal, and three Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals, records show.

Related: A Bribery Scheme Abusing a Program for Afghan Allies Ends with a Conviction for a Navy Commander