Cmdr. Jeromy Pittmann, seen here as a lieutenant commander in Afghanistan in 2014, was sentenced Oct. 28, 2024, to more than two years in prison for taking thousands of dollars in bribes. Pittmann took part in a scheme of writing false recommendation letters for Afghans applying for a Special Immigrant Visa. (Patrick Gordon/U.S. Navy)
A Navy Reserve officer who took thousands of dollars in bribes to write fake recommendation letters for Afghans seeking a special U.S. visa was sentenced Monday to more than two years in prison.
Cmdr. Jeromy Pittmann received a sentence of two years and six months behind bars from a federal judge in New Hampshire, a statement from the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said.
“This case shows how someone betrayed his sacred oath of office to commit crimes for personal gain, with no regard for how his actions could threaten U.S. homeland security and harm Afghans who risked their lives to help the United States,” SIGAR Inspector General John Sopko said in the statement.
Pittmann was convicted in July on one count of bribery and false writing, separate single charges of bribery and false writing and conspiracy to commit money laundering to conceal the bribes. He had faced up to 45 years in prison for taking several thousand dollars in bribes, the Justice Department said at the time.
However, prosecutors recommended a sentence on the low end of applicable guidelines, from six-and-a-half to eight years, according to court records.
A Navy Seabee whose military career spans more than 20 years, Pittmann was assigned to Naval Support Activity Naples in Italy when he was arrested in March 2022.
That came after the State Department received a complaint that some Afghan companies had bribed a U.S. service member to write false recommendations for Special Immigrant Visa applicants.
Each year, a limited number of the visas are made available to Afghans who served as translators or otherwise helped the U.S. military during the Afghanistan war from 2001 to 2021.
But even before the war ended, the program was plagued by delays, lack of coordination and understaffing, the State Department inspector general found. Some candidates had been waiting for years when the Taliban regained power in August 2021.
Pittmann’s “pay-for-play scheme” slowed down processing of applications and extorted “vulnerable Afghans for the documentation they need to qualify,” the State Department wrote in an Oct. 18 victim impact statement to the court.
Court records show that Pittmann wrote at least 22 fake recommendation letters from May 2018 to January 2021 for Afghan nationals seeking a Special Immigrant Visa.
Pittmann didn’t know any of the individuals he vouched for and had agreed to write the letters for $500 each, court records show.
In the letters, Pittmann said the applicants had served as translators for the U.S. military and NATO. He also said they were in danger because of their service and were not a threat to national security, according to court records.
Pittmann had sought to avoid prison, requesting a sentence of probation and supervised release. A father of four, he is the sole breadwinner for his family and caretaker of his ill wife, he said in an Oct. 22 court filing.
But prosecutors argued that a prison sentence was justified because of his disregard for national security and self-enrichment at the expense of Afghans desperate to flee Taliban rule, court records show.
They characterized Pittmann as a fraudster and serial liar, including when during trial he denied having accepted the bribes.
He subsequently admitted under cross-examination that he had received $2,000 from an unidentified person who asked him to write the letters.
Pittmann claimed that the money was payment for starting an Afghan training program, court records show.
He must report to the Bureau of Prisons on Dec. 6.
