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Man sentenced for unlawful citizenship procurement

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A Windsor Mill man was sentenced to nine months in prison, followed by one year of supervised release, should he return to the United States, on charges or procurement of citizenship unlawfully. 

Zulquarnain Qureshi, 71, plead guilty to the offense on February 5. 

As part of the agreement Qureshi was denaturalized and agreed to be removed from the country. According to the plea, he fraudulently obtained a passport of a United Kingdom citizen, using it to enter the U.S. in June of 1999. Qureshi then lived in the country, working and traveling abroad under the falsely acquired identity until he was arrested in Baltimore on August 15, 2017. 

Prior to his arrest, Qureshi married a succession of three U.S. citizens while remaining married to a woman in Pakistan. He obtained lawful permanent resident status through his second marriage. 

Qureshi filed for, and was granted U.S. citizenship under his assumed identity, taking the oath on August 10, 2016. The day prior to a new U.S. passport being sent to him, Britain's Her Majesty's Passport Office alerted American officials of the fraud, launching enforcement officials on their investigation.