Feds Charge Two South Bay Men With Visa Fraud
SAN JOSE (BCN) -- Two Santa Clara County men were charged in federal court Friday in San Jose with visa fraud, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney Stephanie M. Hinds, U.S. Department of State Special Agent in Charge William Chang, and Homeland Security investigator Tatum King.
Namrata Patnaik, 42, of Saratoga, and 56-year-old Kartiki Parekh, of Santa Clara, were charged with visa fraud and conspiracy to commit visa fraud on behalf of foreign workers sponsored by Perfect VIPs, their computer chip design product and services company. Patnaik, who is also charged with money laundering, is the company's CEO ,and Parekh is its human resources manager.
The indictment charges that, from 2011 through April 2017, Patnaik and Parekh submitted approximately 85 fraudulent H-1B visa applications for temporary nonimmigrant workers sponsored by the company; and it alleges that Patnaik later laundered the proceeds of the visa fraud.
With an H-1B visa, an employer can employ a foreign worker in a "specialty occupation" in the United States on a temporary, nonimmigrant basis.
Once the applications were approved, Patnaik and Parekh instead created a pool of H-1B workers who were hired by other employers, not with PerfectVIPs. This practice provided the company an unfair and illegal advantage over employment-staffing firms.
During the period of Patnaik's and Parekh's conspiracy, the indictment alleges, the other employers paid fees of nearly $7 million to PerfectVIPs to cover the cost of the H-1B workers' wages and salaries as well as a profit markup for the company.
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