A Virginia man who told an FBI undercover employee he wanted to commit jihad has been sentenced to five years in prison for passport fraud and making false statements in his application to join the U.S. military.
A U.S. attorney’s office news release says 28-year-old Shivam Patel, of Williamsburg, was sentenced Monday. He was also ordered to pay $4,000 in fines.
The Virginian-Pilot reports that Patel, who was raised Hindu before converting to Islam a few years ago, left his job teaching English in China to fly to Jordan, where he talked about joining the Islamic State group. Prosecutors say Jordan moved to deport him, so he returned to the U.S. in September 2016.
Shivam Patel (pictured) of Williamsburg, Virginia was sentenced to five years in prison on Monday for lying on his military applications
He met an FBI informant in Detroit on his way back to Virginia, and said he went to Jordan to try and connect with like-minded Muslims.
He said he wanted to do something ‘bigger, better and more purposeful’ with his life, like dying for Allah.
The two continued to stay in touch after Patel returned to Virginia, where at one point Patel expressed admiration for an Army officer who had killed 13 soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas.
Nine weeks later, Patel started applying to various branches of the military.
While expressing support for a terrorist organization or an attacker is not illegal, Patel fell in trouble with the law when he failed to disclose his overseas trips on his military applications.
According to court documents, Patel lied about his travel history, saying he only left the country once in the past seven years, to go to India with his family in 2011 and 2012.
When an Army recruiter asked to see Patel’s passport to back up his claims about his overseas travels, he said he could bring it by the office. But then two days later he called the State Department and said that had lost the document and needed a new one.
In a letter to the court, Patel said he struggled with mental health problems and had changed his views on religion several times over the years.
After returning to Jordan, Patel said he started going to Hindu services with his family again.
He says he started applying to jobs in the military, and with local police departments, because his parents were trying to arrange a marriage for him and he wanted to be an attractive candidate for potential brides. He majored in criminal justice at Virginia State University, a degree popular with prospective law enforcement officers.
But the judge said Patel’s conversations with the FBI source and the timing of his applications to the military were ‘clearly some reason for concern’.
‘It’s all very troubling,’ U.S. District Judge Mark S. Davis said.