No. 19-2799 ___________________________

United States of America

Plaintiff - Appellee

v.

Pisanu Sukhtipyaroge, also known as Pat

Defendant - Appellant ____________

Appeal from United States District Court for the District of Minnesota ____________

Submitted: October 21, 2020 Filed: June 16, 2021 ____________ Before COLLOTON, GRASZ, and STRAS, Circuit Judges. ____________ STRAS, Circuit Judge.

After helping a high-school student enter the United States on a fraudulent visa, Pisanu Sukhtipyaroge sexually and financially exploited him. The issue on appeal is whether he has to pay restitution for the harm he caused. The district court 1 concluded that he did, and we affirm.

1 The Honorable Wilhelmina M. Wright, United States District Judge for the District of Minnesota. I.

Sukhtipyaroge met A.S.M. during a visit to the Dominican Republic. After they became friends, Sukhtipyaroge offered to help A.S.M., a Dominican citizen, get an F-1 student visa to continue his education in the United States. See 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(15)(F)(i).

Sukhtipyaroge filled out A.S.M.’s application and provided an affidavit of support. In the latter, he promised to “provide food, housing, transportation, school supplies, and . . . cover tuition.” The information he gave, however, did not tell the whole story. Nowhere did he say, for example, that A.S.M. would remain in the United States even after school was over. Nor did he disclose that the plan was for A.S.M. to work at a restaurant owned by Sukhtipyaroge’s family. Revealing either fact could have jeopardized the application. See id.; 8 C.F.R. § 214.2(f)(5)(i), (f)(9).

A critical moment for the scheme came when A.S.M. interviewed at the embassy. Sukhtipyaroge told him beforehand that he had to keep his work at the family restaurant “a secret” and “convince” the interviewers that he “want[ed] to come back to Santo Domingo” when he finished school. A.S.M. did exactly as he was told.

After the application was approved, A.S.M. attended school in the United States for several months, at which point he stopped and began working even longer shifts at the restaurant. Of the $500 per week he earned, Sukhtipyaroge deducted $375—some for living expenses, despite promising in the affidavit that he would pay for them himself. The exploitation was more than just financial: he also forced A.S.M. to perform sex acts “[m]ultiple times a week.”

A.S.M. was in no position to refuse. At various points, Sukhtipyaroge had threatened to kick him out of the house, fire him from the restaurant, have him removed from the country, and harm his family. A.S.M. eventually escaped after -2- contacting an abuse hotline, but not before he endured nearly two years of abuse that resulted in several suicide attempts and left him with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Sukhtipyaroge pleaded guilty to visa fraud, see 18 U.S.C. §§ 2, 1546, and harboring an alien, see 8 U.S.C. § 1324(a)(1)(A)(iii), (B)(i). The district court sentenced him to 42 months in prison and, for the visa-fraud offense, ordered him to pay a total of $77,694.40 in restitution, $54,729.40 of which will go directly to A.S.M. For several reasons, Sukhtipyaroge asks us to overturn the restitution order.

II.

Under the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act, a district court “shall order . . . the defendant [to] make restitution to