Man, 55, charged in green card fraud case

A Parma Heights man who immigrated here in 1999 was arraigned Thursday on criminal charges related to his alleged false statements about his military service and involvement in a politically and ethnically-motivated attack on Croatians during the 1990s civil war in the former Yugoslavia.

According to the indictment filed by federal attorneys, Jugoslav Vidic, 55, made multiple false statements to U.S. immigration and law enforcement officials in his successful application to become a lawful permanent resident, including falsely stating that his only past military service was in the Yugoslav Army in the late 1980s, omitting his service in the Serb Army from 1991 to 1995.

Vidic is charged with one count of possessing a green card that was procured by means of materially false statements and one count of making false statements to a federal agent. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison for the first charge and a maximum penalty of five years in prison for the second.

Vidic is also accused of lying to law enforcement agents in 2017 when questioned about his immigration application. Vidic, who came here as a refugee, applied to become a lawful permanent resident of the U.S., which was approved in 2005.

Records from U.S. District Court of Northern Ohio show Vidic appeared before Magistrate Judge Jonathan Greenberg. Vidic pleaded not guilty to the charges and he was remanded to the custody of U.S. Marshals. A bond hearing will be at 2 p.m. Thursday via video before magistrate Greenberg.

Attorney Daniel Misiewicz was appointed to represent Vidic. Trial attorney Patrick Jasperse of the criminal division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew W. Shepherd and Jerome J. Teresinski for the Northern District of Ohio are prosecuting the case. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs also provided assistance.

GOVERNMENT’S CASE

The formal charge alleges Vidic falsely stated that he had never been charged with breaking any law even though he had been convicted in absentia in 1998 of a war crime in Croatia.

The document also alleges that Vidic falsely stated he had never participated in killing a person because of ethnic origin or political opinion.

The immigrant also allegedly participated in an attack by ethnic Serb military forces in September 1991 in which Vidic singled out and took away at gunpoint a Croatian civilian who had recently shaken hands with Croatia’s then-president, Franjo Tudjman, who supported Croatian independence from Yugoslavia. The victim was never seen alive again and his body later was exhumed from a mass grave.

The case against Vidic also was coordinated by the Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center, including the FBI’s International Human Rights Unit. The Department of Justice thanks the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Justice and Public Administration of the Republic of Croatia, which were both instrumental in furthering this investigation, a news release states.

Report human rights violators

People who have information about human rights violators in the United States are urged to contact U.S. law enforcement through the HSI tip line at 1-866-DHS-2-ICE (1-866-347-2423) or its online tip form at https://www.ice.gov/webform/ice-tip-form or the FBI tip line at 1-800-CALLFBI (1-800-225-5324) or its online tip form at https://tips.fbi.gov/.

Today’s breaking news and more in your inbox