PRECEDENTIAL UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT _____________ No. 19-1282 _____________ RAVIDATH RAGBIR, Appellant v. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA _____________ On Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey District Court No. 2-17-cv-01256 District Judge: The Honorable Kevin McNulty Argued October 30, 2019 Before: SMITH, Chief Judge, HARDIMAN, and PHIPPS, Circuit Judges (Filed: February 10, 2020) Alina Das Amy Joseph [ARGUED] Jessica Rofe Daniela Ugaz [ARGUED] Washington Square Legal Services, Inc. Immigrant Rights Clinic 245 Sullivan Street 5th Floor New York, NY 10012 R. Scott Thompson Wollmuth Maher & Deutsch 500 Fifth Avenue 12th Floor New York, NY 10110 Counsel for Appellant Mark E. Coyne [ARGUED] Office of United States Attorney 970 Broad Street Room 700 Newark, NJ 07102 Counsel for Appellee Lawrence S. Lustberg Gibbons One Gateway Center Newark, NJ 07102 Counsel for Amici Immigrant Defense Project and National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild in Support of Appellant ________________ OPINION ________________ SMITH, Chief Judge. Ravidath Ragbir, a green card holder from Trinidad and Tobago, was convicted of mortgage fraud in 2000. Because the loss attributable to the fraud exceeds $10,000, the Department of Homeland Security seeks to remove Ragbir to his native country. To avoid the immigration consequences collateral to his conviction, Ragbir filed a petition for a writ of error coram nobis, seeking either a new trial or resentencing. Because Ragbir fails to meet the requirements for issuance of the writ, we will affirm the District Court’s denial of the petition. I 2 A. District of New Jersey Felony Conviction Ragbir came to the United States as a lawful permanent resident in 1994, and by the late 1990s, he worked in sales at Household Finance Corporation (“HFC”). At HFC, Ragbir was responsible for soliciting mortgage applications, conducting initial reviews, and referring appropriate applications to the company’s underwriter. A real estate broker going by the name of Robert Taylor—whose actual name was Robert Kosch—recruited individuals to submit fraudulent mortgage applications, which Ragbir preliminarily approved. After HFC had disbursed large sums of money, company investigators and the police began questioning various employees, including Ragbir, about the fraudulent applications. Ragbir and four others were eventually indicted on six counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud under 18 U.S.C. §§ 371, 1343. The indictment alleged that Ragbir accepted and preliminarily approved fraudulent applications from individuals that Kosch hired to pose as loan applicants. Attorney Patricia Lee represented Ragbir in the criminal proceedings, and before trial, he raised with her his concerns about the immigration consequences of a conviction. Attorney Lee advised Ragbir that a conviction could result in deportation, but Ragbir mistakenly gathered that a conviction alone would make him deportable. At his November 2000 trial, the government presented Ragbir’s confession to the police. Although defense counsel challenged the accuracy of the transcribed confession, the jury found Ragbir guilty on all counts. The jury was not required, however, to make a loss determination, so that issue ...
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