NEWARK, N.J. - A Middlesex County, New Jersey, man was sentenced today to 18 months in prison making false statements to United States government agencies, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced.
Gulshan Manko, 37, of Woodbridge, New Jersey, pleaded guilty on Aug. 30, 2021, by videoconference before Chief U.S. District Judge Freda L. Wolfson to an information charging him with one count of making false statements to federal agents. He also pleaded guilty on Sept. 11, 2019, to Count Two of an indictment charging him with making false statements in a separate case.
According to documents filed in these cases and statements made in court:
Manko submitted an application, referred to as an SF-86 Form, for employment as a federal agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration. Manko submitted fictitious academic transcripts from two higher education institutions located in New Jersey and represented that he had graduated from these two academic institutions. Manko made these statements in his employment application knowing that they were false in an attempt to gain employment with the DEA.
In the earlier case, Manko made false statements during a criminal investigation, including falsely asserting that he had shredded a government identification card.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Wolfson sentenced Manko to two years of supervised release.
U.S. Attorney Sellinger credited special agents of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Thomas Mahoney, and special agents of the DEA, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Susan A. Gibson in Newark, with the investigation leading today’s sentencing.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ray Mateo of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Opioid Abuse Prevention and Enforcement Unit and Joseph Gribko in Newark.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
