Safe Havens

(B)  Crimes of Moral Turpitude.

Extortion and blackmail involve moral turpitude.[138]

Loan sharking.

Matter of B, 6 I. & N. Dec. 98 (BIA 1954) (where indictment described obtaining pecuniary profits through usury, in violation of law, by means of intimidation, threats of bodily harm, and extortion, BIA held that the sections of the Banking Law of New York under which the defendant had been convicted contained no requirement that criminal intent be established and was therefore not a CMT, but only a licensing and regulatory enactment with a complete absence of any element which could be considered to denote baseness, vileness, or depravity, and that conviction was possible under such sections because of mere negligence in failing to secure a license to carry on a small business, or “inadvertently receiving” more than the permitted interest on a loan).

[138] 9 U.S. Dep’t of State, Foreign Affairs Manual (FAM) § § 40.21(a) N.2.3-1(b)(2), (5).  See N. Tooby, J. Rollin & J. Foster, Crimes of Moral Turpitude § 9.54 (2005).