LEWISTON — A Vermont man with ties to Lewiston and Auburn was sentenced Wednesday for impersonating a Somali man.

Hussien Noor Hussien, 56, of Burlington, Vermont, appeared in U.S. District Court in Portland where a judge sentenced him to two months in prison for impersonating another in a naturalization proceeding, procuring naturalization contrary to law and making a false statement on a passport application, according to court records.

After he’s released from federal prison, Hussien will be on supervised release for three years, Judge George Z. Singal ordered.

Singal also ordered Hussien’s citizenship be revoked because he was naturalized illegally.

Hussien was convicted on the three charges after a three-day trial.

Hussien entered the United States in 2004 as a refugee under the name Abukar Hassan Abdule, along with the wife and children of the real Abukar Hassan Abdule. Three years later, Hussien obtained a driver’s license using that name. In 2011, Hussien applied for U.S. citizenship in Maine under that assumed name.

On his citizenship application and during a citizenship interview with federal officials, Hussien affirmed that his name was Abukar Hassan Abdule. He eventually was naturalized under that name.

Hussien applied for a U.S. passport in 2011 at a Lewiston post office under the assumed name using a Maine driver’s license as identification after he became a citizen. On his application, he listed the name of Abdule’s wife. In 2013, he renewed his U.S. passport under his real name. Also in 2013, he filed in a Vermont court to change his name legally from Abukar Noor Abdule to Hussien Noor Hussien.

But when Abukar Hassan Abdule’s children applied for passports, that triggered a fraud investigation.

“It was discovered that two individuals were using the Abukar Hassan Abdule identity,” according to a complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in federal court.

Hussien’s likeness in passport applications “did not match the individual pictured in the identification documents … submitted with the minor children’s passports,” according to the complaint.

“The documents submitted with his minor children’s passport applications were (Adule’s) refugee identity cards from Kenya issued in 2010 and 2015,” according to the complaint. “All of Abdule’s consent forms for his minor children’s passport applications were executed in Kenya, where he appears to reside,” the complaint says.

In 2017, federal investigators and prosecutors interviewed Abdule’s wife in Auburn. She said she had married the real Abdule in a Kenyan refugee camp roughly 20 years ago, but had divorced him around 1997. Three years later, she married his brother, Hussien, who used Abdule’s identity in an effort to get a U.S. visa and come to this country with her and her children.

She said Hussien had become a naturalized citizen using his brother’s name. She and Hussien had filed for divorce in 8th District Court in Lewiston several years ago. She identified photos of Abdule and Hussien.

A year later, the woman clarified that Abdule and Hussien were not, in fact, brothers. They were related.

“It was common for Somalis to refer to male relatives in this manner,” she told prosecutors.

According to the complaint and her testimony at trial, she said she “never really considered herself to be married to Hussien,” and continued to be married to Abdule.

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