Two foreign nationals, a Russian and an Uzbek, have been arrested in Florida on charges related to a plot to submit fraudulent voter registration applications. Dmitry Shushlebin, a 45-year-old Russian national living in Miami Beach, alongside Sanjar Jamilov, a 33-year-old Uzbek national residing in St. Petersburg, are accused of concocting a plan to flood the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections with 132 false registrations, according to the Department of Justice.
The duo's alleged fraud did not involve sophisticated forgery but rather a series of clumsy repeats and errors that seemed to flag their scheme. Prosecutors say the applications contained "identically formatted" address labels, which included the same typographical error, and featured "repeating dates of birth and addresses and nearly sequential social security numbers." This clumsy operation also involved submitting change of address forms to redirect corresponding mail to locations controlled by Shushlebin and Jamilov, as noted in a Department of Justice statement.
These alleged actions could land each man in prison for up to five years if convicted of conspiring to submit fraudulent voter registration applications and providing false information in voter registration. The case was referred to federal authorities by the Florida Department of State’s Office of Election Crime and Security and is now being investigated by the USPIS, FBI and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
The seriousness of the attempt to tamper with the sanctity of the electoral process cannot be understated. Supervisory Official Antoinette T. Bacon of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Roger B. Handberg for the Middle District of Florida, and others have underscored the significance of the case and are committed to ensuring the integrity of the electoral system. As the case unfolds, sentences will be weighed by a federal district court judge who will take into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines among other statutory factors, according to the announcement by the Department of Justice.
Trial Attorney Leo J. Wise and Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel J. Marcet are managing the prosecution of the case, keeping the machinery of justice well-oiled and running in the fight against election-related crimes.
