A Navy Reserve commander was sentenced to 30 months in prison for accepting thousands of dollars in bribes for a visa program reserved for Afghan nationals who worked with the U.S. government prior to the Taliban takeover of the country, federal officials said.
Jeromy Pittmann, 53, of Pensacola, Florida, accepted bribes in exchange for drafting, submitting, and verifying fake recommendations for Afghan nationals who applied for Special Immigrant Visas with the U.S. Department of State, the Department of Justice said in a release. Pittmann was sentenced Monday after being convicted by a federal jury in New Hampshire in July of conspiracy to commit bribery, bribery, making a materially false writing, and conspiring to commit money laundering.
Nicole Argentieri, the principal deputy assistant attorney general with the DOJ’s Criminal Division, said in a release that Pittmann “used his position of authority over the program to benefit foreign nationals who paid him bribes, falsely asserting that they had served the United States.”
However, Pittmann did not know any of these applicants and “had no basis for recommending them for SIVs,” according to the DOJ. Pittmann received the bribes through an intermediary, Western Union, to avoid detection and created false invoices labeled as “Consultant Services” by “PITTMANN Enterprises, LLC to make his work appear more legitimate, court documents show.
Officials who worked on the case said that Pittmann undermined the visa program, put national security at risk and harmed the Afghans who risked their lives working for the U.S. military.
“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,” Inspector General John F. Sopko of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said in the release.
In messages with a co-conspirator, Pittmann indicated that he was using the bribe money for personal debts, according to a federal affidavit. In a July 2018 email, Pittmann wrote: “Thank you and thank your friend for sending it. I just wish the money would keep coming. Ha. Maybe one day we will get a business started. It would be nice to pay off my debts.”
Between May 2018 and September 2020, Pittmann signed more than 20 letters fraudulently indicating that he personally knew and supervised the visa applicants while they worked as military and NATO translators, according to court documents. Pittmann’s letters stated that the lives of the applicants he was representing were in jeopardy because of the Taliban’s crackdown on Afghans who worked with the U.S.
“Just by being a translator directly supporting the United States army and NATO forces his life is in jeopardy some of the extremist and Taliban consider him a traitor despite his hardship he always shows up for work. I do not see [applicant] as a threat to the United States and in my opinion he would become a productive member of American society if allowed to emigrate,” Pittmann wrote in a letter included in the affidavit.
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In a February 2018 email correspondence with a co-conspirator, Pittmann was told that three Afghan nationals were willing to pay $500 each, according to court documents. Pittmann agreed and asked for further information. In a May 2018 email, Pittmann asked his co-conspirator which base the Afghans worked at and said: “I need to write something about what they did and where. Same goes for all the others. Otherwise, it doesn’t look personal or professional.”
Since 2009, the State Department has issued 50,500 Special Immigrant Visas to Afghan nationals who worked for the U.S. military during two decades of war. After the chaotic August 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the subsequent rise of the Taliban, the situation became dire for those who worked alongside the U.S. military as translators.
Former Army Maj. Matt Zeller, an advocate for helping Afghan interpreters find safety told Task & Purpose in May 2021 that as many as 70,000 Afghans and their families were at risk of being tortured or killed by the Taliban for working alongside U.S. military personnel.
Thousands are still caught up in the bureaucracy, awaiting visas to get out of Afghanistan. During the third fiscal quarter in 2024, more than 2,200 Afghan nationals and 6,700 family members were interviewed as part of their special visa application, according to a State Department report. During the same period, over 5,600 applications were denied or had their approval revoked for not meeting State Department requirements.
According to the court documents, Pittmann was a commander in Naval Reserves which required regular travel to the U.S. for drill training. He also worked as a civilian for the federal government overseas and resided in Italy.
The Navy is in the process of administratively separating Pittmann from the service, a Navy official told Task & Purpose.
UPDATE: 10/31/2024; This article has been updated with a statement from an official that they are working to administratively separate Pittmann from the Navy.
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