Michele Beckwith Acting U.S. Attorney | U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California
Marcus Taslim, a 70-year-old resident of Folsom, has pleaded guilty to visa fraud. The announcement was made by Acting U.S. Attorney Michele Beckwith.
Court documents reveal that in December 2018, Taslim brought an individual, referred to as Person 1, from Indonesia to the United States under false pretenses. He secured a nonimmigrant visa for Person 1 by misleading a consular officer about her intended duration of stay and employment conditions in the United States. Taslim falsely claimed that Person 1 would only stay for one month, receive minimum and overtime wages according to California laws, be paid bi-weekly and in full, and that he had prepaid her one-month salary.
In reality, Taslim instructed Person 1 to return the advance salary once proof of payment was submitted to the consular officer. After arriving in the U.S., Person 1 worked for Taslim for approximately six months under conditions far below those promised. She worked long hours without receiving due wages and was unable to leave because Taslim confiscated her passport. It wasn't until June 2019 that she managed to escape with assistance from the Folsom Police Department.
The case resulted from an investigation by the U.S. Department of State's Diplomatic Security Service’s San Francisco Field Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Elliot C. Wong is leading the prosecution.
Taslim is set for sentencing on May 12, 2025, before U.S. District Judge William B. Shubb. He faces a maximum penalty of ten years imprisonment and a fine up to $250,000; however, his sentence will be determined by statutory factors and Federal Sentencing Guidelines considered by the court.
