Lopez Munongo Makengo

Introduction

Lopez Munongo Makengo, 36, a native of the Democratic Republic of the Congo living in Sioux City, Iowa, was convicted by a federal jury on July 31, 2026, of unlawful possession of identification documents and unlawful use of identification documents — the counts built on a false statement in the application that won him entry to the United States through the Diversity Visa lottery . The verdict came after a three-day trial in federal court in Sioux City and about seven hours of deliberations, announced the same morning it was returned by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Iowa .

Background Information

Makengo entered the Diversity Visa lottery in 2014 and was granted a Diversity Visa — the State Department program that awards immigrant visas by random selection to applicants from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States . He immigrated to the United States in 2016, and in 2017 petitioned for relatives to join him, including a child born in 2013 . That 2017 petition is what unraveled the original application: in it, Makengo admitted he had a child born in 2013 — the same child whose existence his visa application had omitted .

The fraud was discovered in 2022, and the discovery route matters to the story. When the Sioux City Police Department was investigating child abuse and neglect allegations by Makengo — allegations documented in the release as the reason for the police involvement, not as adjudicated findings — Department of State officials reviewed his immigration file and found the false statement: his Diversity Visa application failed to disclose that he had a child from 2014 to 2016, despite his sworn statement at the U.S. Embassy in the DRC that the application’s contents were true and correct .

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Convicted by a jury; sentencing pending.

The case the jury decided was narrow and documentary: the government proved that Makengo possessed and used identification documents procured through a false statement — the omission of his child from the Diversity Visa application he swore was complete . The trial ran three days in Sioux City; the jury deliberated about seven hours before returning guilty verdicts on both counts on the morning of July 31, 2026 . The falsity was not contested at the border of the record — his own 2017 family petition had already admitted the child the visa application omitted, giving prosecutors a document trail in his own hand .

Makengo remains free on previously set bond pending sentencing. He faces a possible maximum sentence of five years’ imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, and up to three years of supervised release, with sentencing to be set before Chief Judge Leonard T. Strand after a presentence report is prepared . The case was investigated by the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service and the Sioux City Police Department, prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Ron Timmons, Shawn Wehde, and Tim Vavricek, and docketed as case 25-4010 .

Public Reaction and Consequences

The release records no public statement from Makengo, no defense comment, and no family statements; the reaction on the record is the verdict itself. The consequences are immediate and structural: a federal felony record on two counts, loss of the bond-quieted life pending sentencing, and an immigration posture that a fraud conviction places in jeopardy regardless of the criminal sentence ultimately imposed . The conviction also re-opens the 2022 investigation that surfaced the fraud — the child abuse and neglect inquiry the release attributes to the Sioux City Police Department — as the pivot on which the whole immigration-fraud case turned, since without it the false statement might never have been reviewed .

Current Status

Makengo has been convicted and awaits sentencing. The jury verdicts were returned July 31, 2026; sentencing will be scheduled after the presentence report, before Chief Judge Strand, and the release sets no date . He remains on bond — the release notes no detention order and no appeal. The maximum exposure stands at five years, a $250,000 fine, and three years of supervised release; the government’s sentencing recommendation and any restitution request are not stated in the announcement .

Impact on Their Career/Life

The conviction converts the Diversity Visa that brought Makengo to the United States in 2016 into the document his fraud conviction now attaches to — the program entry he won in 2014 is the same application the jury found false . A federal fraud conviction of this kind ordinarily forecloses the immigration status built on the underlying application, and the sentencing to come will fix the prison term, fine, and supervised release period that follow. The release describes no occupation, so the documented impact is the verdict, the pending sentencing, and the public record that now ties his name to a sworn false statement that won him entry and a family petition that proved it false .

Sources

• U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Iowa, “Diversity Visa Lottery Winner Found Guilty of Visa Fraud”, July 31, 2026 — source