Jay Clayton, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York | Department of Justice
The Justice Department announced on Apr. 10 that the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has revoked the naturalized citizenship of Michael Pizzuti, originally from Italy, after determining he obtained it illegally. The court found that Pizzuti committed crimes involving moral turpitude and gave false testimony about those crimes during his naturalization process, which prevented him from demonstrating the good moral character required to become a U.S. citizen.
This case highlights how legal authorities address individuals who obtain citizenship through fraud or misrepresentation, especially when serious criminal conduct is involved.
According to the court findings, between July 1998 and August 2000, Pizzuti engaged in dealing counterfeit money, trafficking contraband cigarettes, and conspiring to steal a truck and commit mail fraud. He was arrested and indicted for these offenses in December 2001 and later pleaded guilty, receiving a sentence of 15 months in prison. In another incident between May and September 2001, Pizzuti violently extorted his financial advisor after discovering he was running a Ponzi scheme with Pizzuti's funds—actions that included breaking into the advisor's home at gunpoint and destroying computer records to conceal his involvement. For this violent extortion and obstruction of justice, he was convicted in 2005 (after becoming a citizen) and sentenced to seventeen-and-a-half years in prison.
Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division said: “Violent criminals like this have no place in our society, and when they lie about those crimes to obtain U.S. citizenship, this Administration will stop at nothing to correct that travesty.”
The investigation into Pizzuti’s case was conducted by Homeland Security Investigations within U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), along with ICE’s Office of the Principle Legal Advisor. The civil prosecution involved both the Civil Division’s Office of Immigration Litigation Affirmative Litigation Unit as well as the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
Pizzuti had appeared at his naturalization interview on May 2, 2002—less than five months after being indicted—and falsely testified under oath that he had never been arrested or committed any crime not resulting in arrest; based on this false testimony he unlawfully became a citizen on July 24, 2002.
