Diplomat traded US visas for exotic dancers

July 30 2009 by Rebekah Nahai

Judge Friedman rules US visa case

A former US visa official who expedited visas in exchange for gifts and trips with exotic dancers has been sentenced to a year in prison.

Mike O’Keefe, former official at the US consulate in Toronto Canada, admitted to expediting 21 visas for executives of a jewellery company owned by Sunil Agawa. Agawa, 50, is a native of India but attended Columbia University and lives in New York.

O’Keefe, 62, attended a gem fair in 2002 on government business and there met Agawa, a jewellery dealer. The men kept in touch and O’Keefe began hinting about gifts he would like to receive, such as jewellery and travel.

He wrote in an email: "For some reason I really love Las Vegas. I guess it is because it is a place where I can lose my stiff diplomatic persona and just act like everyone else. Let me know if we can work anything out."

Agawa’s gifts to O’Keefe included several rings and a $3,000 necklace made of gold, diamonds, rubies, and tanzanite. He also booked a $5,400 trip for his married friend to Las Vegas with strippers from Toronto’s Brass Rail Tavern, where O’Keefe was a regular.

O’Keefe told the judge he was depressed at the time of the crimes and added, "I knew these were inappropriate gifts and I never should have accepted them. To this day, I don't know why."

In return for the favours, O’Keefe granted fast-track US visas indiscriminately to Agawa’s Indian employees.

O’Keefe was sentenced to a year in prison and must return the four rings and necklace he received. He has been given a $5,000 fine to compensate for trips to New York and Las Vegas where he was accompanied by dancers and strippers.

The judge has acknowledged O’Keefe’s 40 years of public service in the ruling, which includes 20 years in foreign service, time in the US Air Force and professorship at Southern New Hampshire University.

Agawa has been put on probation and fined $100,000 for US visa bribery.

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