VZCZCXRO7777
RR RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHGI RUEHJO RUEHMA RUEHMR RUEHPA RUEHRN RUEHTRO
DE RUEHFN #0489/01 2770948
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 030948Z OCT 08
FM AMEMBASSY FREETOWN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2234
RUEHPNH/NVC PORTSMOUTH NH 0004
RUEHAR/AMEMBASSY ACCRA 0517
RUEHFT/AMCONSUL FRANKFURT 1470
INFO RUEHZO/AFRICAN UNION COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 FREETOWN 000489 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR CA/FPP 
DEPT PLEASE PASS TO KCC WILLIAMSBURG KY 
ACCRA FOR DHS 
FRANKFURT FOR RCO 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KFRD CVIS CPAS CMGT ASEC SL
SUBJECT:  Fraud Summary - Freetown 
 
Ref:  STATE 074840 
 
--------------------------- 
Country Conditions 
--------------------------- 
 
¶1.  Freetown is a high fraud post.  Despite much progress 
since the end of an 11-year civil war in 2001, Sierra 
Leone is ranked last on the UN Human Development Index. 
As such, socioeconomic conditions for many residents are 
poor and many people seek a better life elsewhere.  There 
is a large diaspora of Sierra Leoneans throughout the 
world, especially in the U.S. and UK.  Sierra Leoneans 
often expect, and receive, remittances from extended 
family members living in wealthier countries. 
Furthermore, many Sierra Leoneans will try to join their 
family members abroad, legally or illegally.  Also, 
corruption is present at all levels of society, 
particularly in government.  It is therefore easy to 
obtain authentic documents with false information, 
sometimes by bribing officials. 
 
--------------------------- 
NIV Fraud 
--------------------------- 
 
¶2.  Most NIV fraud consists of false bank statements and 
invitation letters.  This usually results in a 214(b) 
refusal rather than a formal investigation by the Fraud 
Prevention Unit (FPU).  However, over half of NIV cases 
referred to the FPU are confirmed as fraud.  B visas 
constitute eighty-four percent of all applications.  Of 
the rest, only F visas (4.97%), G visas (2.8%), and A 
visas (2.7%) each exceed two percent of the visa 
caseload.  Within these categories, the most 
disconcerting is relationship fraud for official and 
diplomatic dependants.  Diplomats and officials, 
including very high-level emissaries, commonly make 
fraudulent claims regarding biological and adopted 
children in order to bring them to the U.S.  These claims 
are always supported by Notes Verbale, which are another 
area of concern to us and the Ministry of Foreign 
Affairs.  Post has received both unauthorized and 
fraudulent Notes Verbale supporting official and non- 
official visa applications.  Students typically apply for 
visas to attend schools selected due to a family member 
living nearby or being on the school staff, suggesting 
the possibility that the student application is a cover 
for intending immigrants.  Several of the relatively few 
high school student exchange visitors and conference 
participants have not returned from the U.S., with or 
without attending the intended program first.  Little- 
known and unvetted Sierra Leonean organizations usually 
find program participants, and are likely responsible for 
organizing the alien smuggling under the unwitting aegis 
of well-meaning, established U.S. entities. 
 
Document fraud is very common.  Official documents are 
rarely forged since authentic documents with false 
information are easily obtained.  For example, late or 
delayed birth certificates based on reports from the 
"parents" are often issued many years after the child is 
born.  With this birth certificate, a passport is 
obtained.  At least once a month, IDENT and FR hits 
uncover an applicant with a second identity. 
 
--------------------------- 
IV Fraud 
--------------------------- 
 
¶3.  Embassy Dakar processes Sierra Leone's Immigrant 
Visas. 
 
--------------------------- 
DV Fraud 
--------------------------- 
 
¶4.  Embassy Abidjan processes Sierra Leone's Diversity 
Visas. 
 
--------------------------- 
ACS and U.S. Passport Fraud 
--------------------------- 
 
¶5.  There has been little U.S. passport fraud, other than 
 
FREETOWN 00000489  002 OF 004 
 
 
occasional photocopies of U.S. passports of alleged 
inviting relatives presented during visa interviews.  One 
imposter was turned back twice at the local airport with 
someone else's U.S. passport, before the passport was 
returned to the Embassy. 
 
--------------------------- 
Adoption Fraud 
--------------------------- 
 
¶6.  Embassy Dakar processes Sierra Leone's adoptions. 
 
--------------------------- 
Use of DNA Testing 
--------------------------- 
 
¶7.  Due to CRBA cases often coming from non-traditional 
family situations and unreliable birth certificates, DNA 
testing is recommended in about 70% of cases.  In about 
15-20% of those, the blood relationship has been 
disproved, and in about 10% of cases, applicants have 
abandoned the application after DNA testing was 
recommended.  Post also handles DNA testing for DHS upon 
request, but does not usually receive the results. 
 
---------------------------------- 
Asylum and Other DHS Benefit Fraud 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶8.  V92 and V93 cases are not processed by Embassy 
Freetown.  Most are processed by Embassy Conakry or 
Embassy Dakar.  Embassy Freetown also receives many 
requests for transportation letters from LPRs who have 
lost or stolen I-551s.  There has been little fraud in 
that regard, though there is an applicant with a pending 
case who likely was outside the U.S. longer than a year 
and is lying about it. 
 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
Alien Smuggling, Trafficking, Organized Crime, Terrorist 
Travel 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
 
¶9.  Post has seen several instances of alien smuggling 
where an adult chaperone accompanies teenagers ostensibly 
bringing students for an exchange program or conference. 
In some instances where the visas were issued, the 
children never returned. 
 
-------------------------------- 
DS Criminal Fraud Investigations 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶10.  The consular section referred only one case in the 
last six months to RSO for investigation.  Due to post's 
small size, the referral was handled informally.  RSO and 
Fraud Investigator jointly interviewed the applicant, and 
RSO investigated the case further, then provided conoff a 
copy of the formal written report. 
 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
Host Country Passport, Identity Documents, and Civil 
Registry 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
 
¶11.  PASSPORT:  The Sierra Leonean passport in production 
since 2001 has a machine-readable bio page with a photo- 
digitized picture (large and small) and signature.  Older 
passports were declared obsolete in 2002.  Post does not 
have any specimens.  Applicants must present a birth 
certificate and national ID card and, in theory, come for 
an interview.  However, false breeder documents are 
easily obtained and are not verified by the Immigration 
Office.  There are three passports: regular (passport 
numbers beginning with the letter "O"), service (passport 
numbers beginning with "S"), and diplomatic (passport 
letters beginning with "D").  The three passport types 
are very similar except for the word "Service" or 
"Diplomatic" on the cover above "Passport."  All inside 
pages have watermarks and the passport number hole- 
punched at the top.  Passports contain the following UV 
luminescent features: 
 
-- Cross-hatching on inside covers 
-- Crest and hidden lion on inside front cover 
 
FREETOWN 00000489  003 OF 004 
 
 
-- Hidden passport number on page 1 (regular passports 
only) 
-- Page numbers and a square at the edge of each page, 
starting at the top and moving down each page until the 
center of the book, then back up. 
--  Sierra Leone Crest at the bottom of each page and 
"Republic of Sierra Leone" near the top. 
--  Monochrome binding string, between pages 16 and 17. 
 
 
ID CARD:  Government contractors produced machine- 
readable National ID cards from 2000 to 2004.  The GoSL 
has not contracted a new company to produce them yet. 
While there are theoretically records of these cards, 
since the contractor is not involved anymore, there is no 
way to verify them.  Older, non-machine-readable, cards 
had no records at all.  Both cards are easily photo- 
subbed.  In lieu, the National Registration Secretariat 
now issues letters signed by the Chief or Deputy 
Registrar and with a passport size photo attached, asking 
the bearer to be excused of any requirement for an ID 
card.  The letter is not laminated, nor is it registered, 
allowing for very easy forgery and nearly impossible 
registration. 
 
BIRTH CERTIFICATES:  Birth certificates come in several 
varieties, depending on when the birth is registered: 
 
-- 0 to 30 days: original 
-- 31 days to 1 year: late 
-- Over 1 year: delayed 
 
Certified true copies, which are transcriptions of the 
information in the registers rather than facsimiles of 
the original certificate, are available.  Often, the 
registrar's office will issue a delayed certificate 
instead of a certified copy as they can charge more for 
the delayed certificate and it does not require a record 
check.  Also, applicants may obtain a delayed certificate 
with false information.  All birth certificates are 
printed on paper stock with a single-colored pattern 
background.  The registrar fills the data in handwriting, 
and then stamps and signs.  While post occasionally sees 
forged birth certificates, authentic certificates with 
false information are so easy to obtain that the latter 
are much more common. 
 
Most Sierra Leoneans do not register births, especially 
if the child is born outside of a hospital or health 
center.  At the hospitals and health centers, nurses 
record births but parents must take these forms to the 
nearest Office of the Registrar of Births and Deaths for 
registration, which most parents fail to do.  Some 
parents do not have birth records because most provincial 
records were destroyed during the war.  In order to give 
a fair chance to those who were not registered and to 
facilitate registration of births, there was a mass free 
registration of children aged 0 to 18 on June 20 to 21, 
2003 in commemoration of the Day of The African Child. 
All birth certificates issued during this period had the 
prefix "DAC" followed by a number.  Records for DAC 
registrations are unreliable difficult to access, and 
therefore especially prone to fraud. 
 
DEATH CERTIFICATES:  Death certificates are equally easy 
to obtain.  Birth and death certificates are issued by 
the Office of the Registrar of Births and Deaths, which 
has a head office in downtown Freetown and sub-registries 
at health centers in other parts of Freetown and the 
provincial towns and villages.  In theory, one should 
present a medical report of death and can give 
information on the death orally or in writing.  If done 
orally, the registrar enters the information in the 
prescribed form, reads it out to informant and asks the 
informant to sign.   This should be done within fourteen 
days of the death so that the Registrar can issue a 
burial permit. 
 
EDUCATIONAL DOCUMENTS:  West African Senior School 
Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) statements of result, 
issued by the West African Examinations Council, are 
perhaps the sole Sierra Leonean documents that are easily 
and reliably verifiable.  The WAEC country director 
insists that all statements of results for U.S. visa 
purposes go through Embassy Freetown, so other posts 
 
FREETOWN 00000489  004 OF 004 
 
 
should not accept results presented directly by the 
applicant.  The FPU can now check WASSCE results from 
2000 and later online.  About 30 percent of certificates 
checked are false.  Unfortunately, there is no easy way 
to distinguish results between multiple people with the 
same name, leaving the door open for fraud.  WAEC's other 
exams, taken after primary school (NPSE) and ninth grade 
(BECCE) can be equally checked.  Other school records are 
far less reliable and very prone to fraud as applicants 
frequently bribe school officials or generate documents 
from schools which do not keep sufficient records. 
 
REGISTRIES:  When registry volumes are filled up, they 
are sent to the Freetown main office, allowing the FPU to 
verify registrations relatively easily.  However, 
verification of certificates only proves that the events 
are properly registered, not that they actually took 
place.  Among birth and death certificates verified, 93.3 
percent come back as properly registered, but field 
investigations often prove that registered events never 
occurred. 
 
-------------------------------------------- 
Cooperation with Host Government Authorities 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
¶12.  Post has not recently interacted with host 
government authorities on fraud matters.  Given the 
generally ineffective and often corrupt local judiciary, 
reliable fraud prosecution is unlikely. 
 
--------------------------- 
Areas of Particular Concern 
--------------------------- 
 
¶13.  All areas of concern have been addressed elsewhere 
in this telegram. 
 
--------------------- 
Staffing and Training 
--------------------- 
 
¶14.  The Deputy Consular Section Chief serves as Fraud 
Prevention Manager in addition to his other duties, 
including adjudicating visas and providing American 
citizen services.  He has not received any formal fraud 
training beyond what is included in the Basic Consular 
Course.  There are two FPU LES staff.  The senior of the 
two also handles federal benefits services.  Both have 
taken the FSN Fraud Prevention Workshop (PC542) at FSI 
and Detecting Fraudulent Documents (PC544) online.  The 
FPU primarily handles the large load of investigations 
for IV cases from Dakar, DV cases from Abidjan, V92/V93 
cases from Conakry, and various requests from DHS in 
petition or adjustment of status cases.  The case load 
can at times be overwhelming, particularly when the 
annual DV deadline approaches. 
 
FEDZER