PHILADELPHIA - United States Attorney William M. McSwain announced that Robert Owusu, 52, of the Bronx, New York, and a native and citizen of Ghana, was sentenced to one year and one day of imprisonment, and three years of supervised release, by United States District Judge Cynthia M. Rufe, for attempting to fraudulently obtain a United States passport using a false identity.
In 2018, the defendant submitted an application for a United States passport, using the identity of another in an attempt to remain in the United States illegally. While in the country, the defendant has been convicted of numerous offenses, including his most recent federal conviction for drug trafficking for which he served 45 months in prison. Owusu had previously secured a fraudulent United States passport in 1999 and reentered the country with said passport around that time after having been deported to his native Ghana. Now, he is once again facing deportation back to Ghana after he serves his latest federal sentence for passport fraud.
“To state the obvious, those who enter our country illegally are not above the law - nobody is," said U.S. Attorney McSwain. “By his actions, Owusu has demonstrated a complete lack of respect for our nation’s laws. Not only did he flout our immigration laws and commit passport fraud, but also he committed additional, serious crimes such as drug trafficking while he was here. We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to uphold the rule of law and ensure our nation’s immigration laws are enforced."
The case was investigated by the Diplomatic Security Service and Homeland Security Investigations, and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Josh A. Davison.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
