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Visa Fraud

This archive displays posts tagged as relevant to fraud in visa programs. You may also be interested in the following pages:

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Top Ten Federal Financial and Healthcare Fraud Prison Sentences of 2022

Posted  02/2/23
Financial and healthcare fraud often can carry stiff monetary penalties for entities facing government enforcement, as shown on our other Top Ten Lists. Whistleblowers reporting wrongful conduct under one of the federal whistleblower reward laws sometimes find that criminal authorities are as interested in their allegations as civil enforcement agencies and authorities. Fraud can also result in criminal charges and...

November 21, 2022

Ruixue “Serena” Shi will spend 20 years in federal prison and has been ordered to pay nearly $36 million in restitution for defrauding investors out of tens of millions of dollars. Shi, convicted on one count of wire fraud, was the general manager of Global House Buyer LLC, a China-based real estate company with an office in Los Angeles. Shi inked a deal with Dakota Development, a subsidiary of SBE Entertainment, to build a real estate development in the City of Coachella consisting of luxury condos, a hotel complex, and conference facilities. Shi solicited investments from mostly Chinese investors, preying on their ignorance of English and trust in the American economy, and led them to believe their investment would help them obtain an American visa. USAO CDCA

February 11, 2022

Defendants Seyed Taher Kameli and his companies, Chicagoland Foreign Investment Group, LLC and American Enterprise Pioneers, Inc., will pay jointly and severally $1.6 million after entering into a judgment for defrauding EB-5 immigrant investors. Kameli is an immigration attorney, some of whose clients were victims of the fraud. He promised at least 226 foreign investors that their $500,000 investments would finance construction of a senior living project and pave the way for at least 10 permanent full-time jobs, as well as qualifying each investor for a path to permanent U.S. residency. Instead, he commingled and misused some of the $88.7 million raised. Defendants are enjoined from further violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. Kameli also agreed administratively to a 5-year suspension from practicing before the SEC as an attorney. SEC

Catch of the Week: Second Conspirator Pleads Guilty in Jay Peak EB-5 Fraud Case

Posted  06/4/21
Person holding prison bars
William Kelly pleaded guilty to two felony charges in connection with EB-5 securities fraud in the development of the Jay Peak Biomedical Research Park, also called the AnC Vermont project. Kelly, who served as the chief operating officer for the project, was a long-time advisor to project owner Ariel Quiros, who previously pleaded guilty to related charges. Co-defendant William Stenger, the project’s CEO, pleaded...

Top Ten Non-Healthcare False Claims Act Recoveries of 2019

Posted  01/10/20
False Claims Act
This year, federal and state governments recovered hundreds of millions of dollars thanks to whistleblowers who came forward to report fraud under the federal False Claims Act and state False Claims Acts.  Whistleblowers reported a wide-range of misconduct involving government contracts, including fraud by defense contractors, airlines, and even a major research university.  Defendants’ deception ran the gamut...

December 18, 2019

Abhijit Prasad was sentenced to 3 years in prison following his conviction for visa fraud and related charges.  Prasad submitted 19 applications for H-1B visas for individuals he claimed would be performing work for Cisco Systems although Cisco had no expectation that the foreign workers would perform work for them and, in some cases, Prasad submitted forged documents purporting to be from Cisco.  Prasad was also ordered to forfeit $1.9 million.  USAO ED Cal; USAO ND Cal

December 17, 2019

India-based outsourcing and business consulting firm Infosys Ltd. has agreed to pay $800,000 to the State of California to resolve allegations that the company misclassified approximately 500 Infosys employees as working in California on B-1 visas rather than H-1B visas.  By using the B-1 visas, Infosys avoided California payroll taxes and avoided the H-1B obligation to pay workers at the local prevailing wage.  The case was initiated by a whistleblower complaint under the California False Claims Act filed by Jack "Jay" B. Palmer, who will receive 15% of the settlement.  CA

November 4, 2019

Golden California Regional Center and its principal Bethany Liou will pay over $50 million in disgorgement and interest to resolve charges of fraud in connection with their sale of interests in the GCRC Cupertino Fund, LP as securities qualifying under the EB-5 visa program.  Defendants represented that investor funds would be used to finance real estate development but, in fact, Liou diverted the funds to personal use.  SEC

How to Report Visa Fraud for a Whistleblower Reward

Posted  09/25/19
report visa fraud
A settlement with India-based management consulting firm Mu Sigma shows how whistleblowers can make a difference in visa enforcement. In September, 2019, Mu Sigma agreed to pay the U.S. $2.5 million to settle claims that it evaded H-1B visa requirements and brought employees to the U.S. on B1 visitor visas, misrepresenting the nature of their intended employment. In announcing the settlement, Immigration and Customs...

September 20, 2019

Pradyumna Kumar Samal, the former CEO of two Bellevue, Washington IT firms, has been sentenced to more than seven years in prison for his role in a long-running H1-B visa fraud scheme.  Samal's companies, Divensi and Azimetry, were employment agencies in the business of providing IT workers to major corporate clients.  Samal would submit fraudulent applications on behalf of foreign workers, claiming that they were being brought to the U.S. to perform a specific job, and instructing them to lie in their own applications, when, in fact, after being admitted, the employees would be benched and unpaid until Samal's companies were able to place them at actual client jobs.  In addition, Samal's companies failed to pay employment taxes on behalf of the foreign workers, instead diverting those funds to his personal use.  USAO WD WA
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