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David Nanes, And the Art Of Working Over The Immigration System
Wed, February 22, 2017

David Nanes Schnitzer is in a Mexican City jail, awaiting trail on charges that he defrauded investors in a Ponzi scheme.  He was caught in Mexico after coming over form Cuba, in a bearded disguise.  

But, in Belize, a place that Nanes-Schnitzer is believed to have made his home for as many as three years, he needed no disguise.  And that is because he - or his agents - worked the corrupt immigration system like a bag of tricks, coming up with one surprise after another.  

Nanes-Schnitzer applied for nationality in late 2012 - what you might call the “bad old daysâ€￾ when the Immigrant Office in Belmopan was over-run by irregularities - the kinds that we hear about every week in the Senate Hearings.  But this case never made it into the auditor general’s report.  But, there was a report, done by then Director Maria Marin.  The media has now obtained this internal document which provides a compelling insight into how easily the system was hijacked to produce a passport for a fugitive:

This 14 page internal memorandum compiles everything that went wrong - just within the immigration department - with the issuance of a fraudulent passport to David Nanes Schnitzer.  

His applicant was accepted in November, 2012, and that’s where the funny business started with his name.  

From the start, his own sworn affidavit states his name as Nanes, and the two referees also declared his name as Nanes. 

But somehow, the officer who accepted the applicant, 

Ady  Pacheco even though the receipt is written out using the name David Names 

she accepted a nationality application with the letter “B,â€￾ as in Banes subsisted for “N,â€￾ as in Nanes.  That eventually became Belziean citizen David Banes.  

Director Maria Marin who wrote the report noted, quote, “there is nothing on the file to support or justify the change in the applicant’s name from Nanes to Banes…there is no basis for the change in the names.â€￾  But it still happened - in spite of all the documentation clearly stating otherwise.

Director Marin insists that Pacheco should have recognized the glaring inconsistencies.

But, according to the Director’s report, Pacheco didn’t even ensure that a photo of the applicant with his personal particulars was included in the file.  The director says this, quote, “indicates neglect and disregard of procedures.â€￾

Pacheco also did not notice that the copy of Nanes’s US passport had been tampered with.  The bio data page had his name as Banes, but the machine readable area listed his name as Nanes.

On, the the Us Embassy stated: 

 Ã¢â‚¬Å“these two fields must reflect the same information or the passport is considered to be illegitimate.â€￾  But Ms Pacheco passed it on as a “certified true copy.â€￾

The Director notes that Pacheco even accepting the application in the first place, quote, “is not a duty that she would normally perform.â€￾

The Director notes also that it was out of the norm that the interview “was conducted on the same day that the application was submitted and by the same accepting officer.  There is routinely a one or two week waiting period for interviews.â€￾  The Director notes, quote, “the entire process was carried out by Ms. Pacheco even though it was not the norm for one officer to perform several steps in the application process.â€￾ End quote.

And, there are inconsistencies in what she put together.  First she states that Banes was a permanent resident since 2004, and in that same form she writes that he was a permanent resident since 2006.  Of course, neither statement is factual.  He was not a legitimate permanent resident. 

There is no permanent resident file for either David Banes or David Nanes.  In fact, the permanent residence file his name is linked to actually goes to one Warren Edward Mudry.

Later on in the file, it notes that there is a recommendation from Minister Edmond Castro - which is then forwarded to the then Director, Ruth Meighan.  

We note that his application was also signed by Gonzalo Heredia - brother of Minister Manuel Heredia - a senior JP - who attested that he had known Nanes for 5 years. Nanes was not in the country during that period. 

His nationality was approved but he didn’t even show up for the swearing in ceremony.  He never signed the oath, but still his certificate was illegally released through the backdoor.

And of course, he got a passport and so many other forms of identification after properly bamboozling the system - which seems not too hard to do.

Director Marin recommended disciplinary action against officers Ady Pacheco and the Former Officer In Charge of Nationality Gordon Wade.  The two are still with the department.

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