Navy Reserve Officer’s Visa-Related Bribery Convictions Hold (1)

A US Navy Reserve officer lost an appeal to undo his convictions for accepting bribes in exchange for writing letters of recommendations for Afghan nationals seeking special immigration visas.

Jeromy Pittmann argued the government failed to prove falsity. But there was more than enough evidence to prove that his statements about the applicants’ character were false because the evidence showed he didn’t remember the applicants when he wrote their letters, the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit said Wednesday.

The court upheld all four criminal counts—bribery, false writing, conspiracy to commit bribery and false writing, and conspiracy to ...