Jateen Bhatt v. Eric Holder, Jr.

MEMORANDUM

Jhateen Bhatt, a native and citizen of Tanzania, challenges the decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”). The BIA found him removable based on convictions for grand theft and forgery, and statutorily ineligible for a waiver of inadmissibility under Section 212(h) of the Immigration and Naturalization Act (“INA”), 8 U.S.C. § 1182 (h).

The BIA did not err in finding that Bhatt’s conviction for forgery under California Penal Code § 470(b) was an aggravated felony because it was an offense involving “fraud or deceit in which the loss to the victim ... exceeds $10,000.” 8 U.S.C. § 1101 (a)(43)(M)(i). The jury’s findings included a finding that the forgery caused a loss greater than $200,000. Under the circumstances of this case, that jury finding satisfies the government’s burden to prove the circumstances of the crime by clear and convincing evidence. See Nijhawan v. Holder, 557 U.S. 29, 41-43 , 129 S.Ct. 2294 , 174 L.Ed.2d 22 (2009).

Because we agree that the forgery conviction is an aggravated felony, we do not decide whether Bhatt’s grand theft conviction under California Penal Code § 487(a), premised on a theory of theft by false pretenses, is a “theft…