Justice Department Revokes Citizenship of Convicted Gun Trafficker and Healthcare Fraudster

In a significant move to uphold immigration integrity, the Justice Department announced Thursday it has successfully revoked U.S. citizenship from two individuals who obtained it fraudulently and filed a lawsuit to strip citizenship from a third person involved in marriage fraud.

Attorney General Pam Bondi emphasized the gravity of these actions, stating that they “reflect this Department of Justice’s ongoing efforts to strip citizenship from people who conceal crimes or defraud the American people during the immigration process.”

“American citizenship is a sacred privilege — not a cheap status that can be obtained dishonestly,” Bondi added, underscoring the administration’s stance on naturalization fraud.

The three cases involve Vladimir Volgaev from Ukraine, Mirelys Cabrera Diaz from Cuba, and Alec Nasreddine Kassir from Lebanon, all of whom allegedly committed serious violations before or during their naturalization process.

According to the Justice Department, Volgaev’s denaturalization was secured on Monday after officials discovered he had concealed his involvement in a conspiracy to smuggle over a thousand firearms components out of the United States to foreign markets. This revelation came after he had already been naturalized as a U.S. citizen on January 11, 2016.

Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate delivered a stern message regarding Volgaev’s case: “The United States provided Volgaev with safety, housing, and citizenship, and he returned those gains with malice, including by defrauding one of the federal agencies that provided him benefits. We will not reward this kind of behavior by allowing such an individual to retain U.S. citizenship that should not have been granted in the first place.”

Volgaev was convicted in federal court in 2020 on charges of smuggling goods from the United States and theft of government money or property, crimes committed after he had already obtained citizenship.

In the second case, Cabrera Diaz, a resident of Hialeah, Florida, had her citizenship revoked after the court determined she had “illegally procured her citizenship” by committing healthcare fraud before her naturalization, which should have disqualified her from obtaining U.S. citizenship.

Court records reveal that in 2019, Cabrera Diaz, then 42, was convicted in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida for conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud. She received a 29-month prison sentence and was ordered to pay over $6 million in restitution.

As part of her guilty plea, Cabrera Diaz admitted to participating in a healthcare fraud scheme between August 2011 and March 2014, before becoming a U.S. citizen. She confessed to paying kickbacks to patient recruiters for referring fraudulent prescriptions to the pharmacy where she worked, even maintaining a detailed log of payments owed to recruiters for these illegal activities.

The third case involves Alec Nasreddine Kassir, a Miami resident originally from Lebanon. The Justice Department has filed a lawsuit to revoke his citizenship, alleging that Kassir falsely claimed to be living with his U.S. citizen spouse during the three years immediately preceding his naturalization application in March 2010.

On November 14, 2018, Kassir pleaded guilty to passport fraud, admitting that he had not been living in a “marital union” with his purported U.S. citizen spouse. In fact, the couple had separated in 2009, and Kassir had moved to Florida while his spouse resided in another state.

These denaturalization proceedings come amid increasing scrutiny of the naturalization process. Some lawmakers have recently proposed legislation to expand denaturalization possibilities, particularly in cases involving terrorism or major criminal activity by naturalized citizens.

The actions reflect a broader policy focus on immigration enforcement and the integrity of the naturalization process, with officials emphasizing that citizenship obtained through fraudulent means will not be protected from review and potential revocation.

Legal experts note that while denaturalization is a relatively rare proceeding, the Justice Department has been pursuing such cases more aggressively in recent years to address concerns about fraud in the immigration system and to ensure that the privileges of U.S. citizenship are reserved for those who obtain it legitimately.