Preet Bharara, the celebrity US prosecutor, brought two main charges against Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade: visa fraud and failure to pay Federal minimum wage while overworking her employee. She faces maximum prison sentences as reported by the press:
The diplomat, freed on payment of a $250,000 bond, could face a maximum sentence of 10 years if convicted of visa fraud, and five years for making a false declaration.
Thus, as far as we can tell, Mr. Bharara imagines no prison sentences against India’s Lady Diplomat for her underpaying Ms. Richard, since apparently, the first time violation of the Federal Minimum wage law does not include a prison sentence and therefore counts only as a misdemeanor. Thus, the US government has determined that it is a grave crime to lie on a visa application form (DS-160)–so grave indeed that it allowed the US Marshals to violate its own standards in the treatment of a foreign diplomat (p. 16):
