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Federal agents, including from Homeland Security Investigations, blew the lid off an elaborate scheme by 21 brokers and recruiters, including 10 Indian-Americans, who allegedly conspired to illegally keep hundreds of foreign nationals in the United States for a fees by enrolling them “in a university” in New Jersey that they did not know was created by investigators as part of a sting operation to catch criminals involved in student visa fraud.
The 21 people, including those of Indian origin, were arrested in New Jersey and Washington April five by federal agents and charged with conspiracy to commit visa fraud, conspiracy to harbor aliens for profit and other offenses, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman for the District of New Jersey, announced last week.
The 10 Indians arrested included Tajesh Kodalim, 44; Jyoti Patel, 34; Sanjeev Sukhija,35; Harpreet Sachdeva, 26; Shahjadi M. Parvin aka Sarah Patel, 54; Narendra Singh Plaha, 44 and Govardhan Dyavarashetty aka Vardhan Shetty, 35, all from New Jersey, as well as Avinash Shankar, 35, from Illinois; Karthik Nimmala, 32, from Georgia and Syed Qasim Abbas aka Qasim Reza aka Nayyer, 41, from New York.
The charges of conspiracy to commit visa fraud and making a false statement each carry a maximum potential penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The charges of conspiracy to harbor aliens for profit and H1-B Visa fraud each carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and $250,000 fine.
Fishman said that through the fake University of Northern New Jersey, an office building in Cranford, N.J., staffed by undercover HSI agents posing as educators and instructors, investigated criminal activities associated with the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP), including student visa fraud and the harboring of aliens for profit. The UNNJ was not staffed with real instructors or educators, nor had any curriculum or conducted any actual classes or education activities. The UNNJ operated solely as a storefront location.
The people arrested were brokers who recruited foreign students mainly from China and India to the university that they knew would not have real classes. The brokers, working with investigators posing as university officials then charged the students in what was described as ‘Pay to Stay’ scheme that allowed them to maintain their student visas and stay in the country.
The prosecutor’s office said that the defendants “fully acknowledged” that none of their foreign national clients would attend any actual courses, earn actual credits, or make academic progress toward an actual degree in a particular field of study.
The defendants facilitated the enrollment of their foreign national clients in UNNJ to fraudulently maintain student visa status, in exchange for kickbacks, or “commissions.”
The defendants also facilitated the creation of hundreds of false student records, including transcripts, attendance records and diplomas, which were purchased by their foreign national conspirators for the purpose of deceiving immigration authorities. In other instances, the defendants used UNNJ to fraudulently obtain work authorization and work visas for hundreds of their clients.
These defendants then created false contracts, employment verification letters, transcripts and other documents. They then paid the undercover agents thousands of dollars to put the school’s letterhead on the sham documents, to sign the documents as school administrators and to otherwise go along with the scheme.
All of these bogus documents created the illusion that prospective foreign workers would be working at the school in some IT capacity or project. The fraudsters then used the fictitious documents fraudulently to obtain labor certifications issued by the U.S. Secretary of Labor and then ultimately to petition the U.S. government to obtain H1-B visas for non-immigrants. These fictitious documents were then submitted to the U.S. Customs and Immigration Services (USCIS). The prosecutor’s office said that In the vast majority of circumstances, the foreign worker visas were not issued because USCIS was advised of the ongoing undercover operation.
The sting operation was a way to understand, according to the prosecutor’s office, the extent of the criminal network behind visa fraud, including how students are recruited, how fake universities work and what happens after the students are enrolled.
The brokers, the prosecutors said, arranged student visas for the UNNJ for over 1,000 people. Fishman said all of the recruited students were already living in the United States, having initially obtained visas legally, but were looking for a way to stay in the U.S. and many were living and working throughout the U.S. Following the fraud discovery, most of the “students” will ultimately have their visas revoked.
HSI Newark is coordinating with the ICE Counterterrorism and Criminal Exploitation Unit and the SEVP to terminate the nonimmigrant student status for the foreign nationals associated with UNNJ, and if applicable, administratively arrest and place them into removal proceedings.
“While the United States fully supports international education, we will vigorously investigate those who seek to exploit the U.S. immigration system,” said ICE Director Sarah R. Saldana. “As a result of this operation, HSI special agents have successfully identified and closed a gap in the student visa system and have arrested 21 individuals alleged to be amongst the system’s most egregious violators.”
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