SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A federal jury has convicted an Arizona man of impersonating an FBI agent to defraud immigrants in California, officials said Monday.
Ivan Isho, 44, of Peoria, Arizona, faces up to five years in prison after he was convicted Friday of stalking, wire fraud and false impersonation of a federal officer following a four-day trial.
He pretended to be an FBI agent as he told members of the Assyrian community in Ceres, near Modesto, in 2016 and 2017 that he could help them get immigration visas for their family members living outside the United States, according to trial evidence.
Isho showed them counterfeit FBI credentials and a gun to back up his story.
They gave him thousands of dollars along with family documents, federal prosecutors said.
But Isho never was employed by the FBI, and never had any ability to help anyone get visas.
He also harassed a woman by pretending to be an FBI special agent in phone calls and voicemail messages to the victim and her husband in 2017 and 2018.
Isho testified that he had the false FBI credentials as part of a Halloween costume, although prosecutors produced voicemails in which he claimed to be with the FBI.
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