TRENTON, NJ – It’s no secret that New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy wants open borders, sanctuary and equal, if not more rights for illegal aliens in his state, but just how far the Governor and his wife Tammy will go to violate U.S. immigration law to provide those opportunities is now being questioned.
Update: 12/18/21 – This story has been updated to reflect statements by Governor Phil Murphy and Sky Blue FC.
The Murphys are the owners of the Sky Blue FC professional women’s soccer team and in the past have been accused of mistreatment of players. Now, they are being accused of being part of a wide-scale immigration fraud scheme by the Department of Justice. While no charges have been filed against Sky Blue or the Murphys personally, emails do suggest that Phil Murphy was aware of the contract personally. Sky Blue said it has not had a relationship with that organization since 2016.
“In 2018, Sky Blue personnel became aware of an investigation relating to Global Premier Soccer. The team has not been contacted about the investigation since then and has had no relationship with GPS since 2016,” said Brian McDonough, a spokesperson for Sky Blue.
Murphy says his SkyBlue FC immigration scandal caught him by surprise
On Friday, the former Chief Operating Officer of Global Premier Soccer (GPS), a now-defunct youth soccer organization formerly based in Waltham, Mass., was charged today in connection with a wide-ranging visa fraud conspiracy.
Justin Capell, 39, of Southborough, Mass., was charged and has agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit visa fraud. A plea hearing has not yet been scheduled by the court.
Capell, feds charge, and his co-conspirators arranged to file fraudulent visa petitions on behalf of at least seven professional soccer teams in order to secure visas for GPS’s foreign coaching staff. One of those teams was Murphy’s Sky Blue FC.
A Rhode Island news site, Golocalprov released emails show Murphy had knowledge of the relationship and the visa program.
Phil Murphy throughout the pandemic has been known as a “rules for thee and not for me” governor after skirting his own executive orders on several occasions, but his team’s involvement in the fraud scam, if any at all is unknown at this time.
Below is a release issued by the U.S. Department of Justice on the arrest and investigation.
According to the federal prosecutors, immigration petitions falsely stated that the beneficiaries would be working as scouts or assistant coaches for the professional teams when in reality they were employed only as youth soccer coaches by GPS.
As part of the conspiracy, Capell and others submitted phony employment contracts between professional teams and the purported beneficiaries. It is also alleged that Capell and co-conspirators created fraudulent coaching licenses for the beneficiaries, which were included as part of the visa application packages. A second facet of the conspiracy involved the filing of fraudulent visa petitions for foreign workers who were scheduled to work for GPS affiliates in one part of the country, but who were sent to work in different parts of the United States.
Document released by GoLocalProv.com
In some instances, it is alleged that conspirators directed visa beneficiaries to mislead U.S. immigration officials – providing them with detailed instructions on how to answer questions during their visa interviews.
In May 2020, Gavin MacPhee, a former GPS employee, pleaded guilty to destroying records in connection with this investigation.
The charging statute provides for a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge are based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling; William S. Walker, Acting Special Agent in Charge, Homeland Security Investigations in Boston; Michael Mikulka, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General, Labor Racketeering and Fraud Investigation, New York Regional Office; and Jonathan Davidson, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Diplomatic Security Service, Boston Field Office made the announcement today. Valuable assistance was also provided by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Fraud Detection and National Security Unit in Vermont. HSI’s Document & Benefit Fraud Task Force, a specialized investigative group comprised of various local, state and federal agencies, conducted this investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mackenzie A Queenin and Jordi de Llano, Deputy Chief of Lelling’s Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit, are prosecuting the case.