HomeCrimeFour Indian Americans Arrested for H-1B Visa Fraud
Don't Be Fooled by Gift Card Scams

Four Indian Americans Arrested for H-1B Visa Fraud

Four Indian American executives have been arrested on charges of fraudulently using the H-1B Visa program to gain an unfair advantage over competitors, The Tribune India reports.

Vijay Mane, 39, Venkataramana Mannam, 47, and Fernando Silva, 53, from New Jersey and Sateesh Vemuri, 52, from California were each charged with conspiracy to commit visa fraud. The Department of Justice filed a criminal complaint against the four executives in the New Jersey U.S. District Court.

According to The Mercury News, the four executives controlled two New Jersey-based IT staffing companies: Procure Professionals Inc. and Krypto IT Solutions. Federal authorities claim that the two companies were central to a “bench-and-switch” scheme executives used to commit visa fraud.

“The purpose of the scheme is to build a ‘bench’ of skilled foreign workers already authorized to work in the U.S., who can then be assigned to end clients immediately upon request, without the need to wait through the prolonged visa process,” the criminal complaint alleged.

To build the bench, the executives filed H-1B visa applications for foreign nationals before they had found them positions. They are accused of creating and submitting false service contracts, statements of work and employment verification letters.

The four executives were each released on a $250,000 bond. They could face up to five years in prison and $250,000 in fines if they are found guilty.

AsAmNews has Asian America in its heart. We’re an all-volunteer effort of dedicated staff and interns. Check out our Twitter feed and Facebook page for more content. Please consider interning, joining our staff or submitting a story.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Latest

Worth the Time

Must Read

Regular Features

Latest

Discover more from AsAmNews

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading