H-1B visa fraud lands Indian-origin man in prison in US

An Indian-origin man was sentenced to 14 months in prison for large-scale H-1B visa fraud in the US. As co-founder of a firm, Nanosemantics, Kishore Dattapuram provided skilled workers to Bay Area tech companies, earning commissions. Other than the prison term, California-based Dattapuram will also have to serve three years of supervised release.

The firm’s scheme aimed to secure visas for candidates before jobs were available, which gave it an unfair advantage over competitors.

Dattapuram, 55, is based in Santa Clara, California.

Dattapuram and two Indian-origin men pleaded guilty to charges of visa fraud and conspiracy in November.

The three, including Kumar Aswapathi (55) and Santosh Giri (48), were charged with one count of conspiracy to commit visa fraud and 10 counts of substantive visa fraud in an indictment filed on February 28, 2019.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Davila also ordered Dattapuram to serve three years of supervised release, forfeit $125,456.48, and pay a fine of $7,500 and a $1,100 special assessment fee, the US Attorney’s Office said in a statement issued on Monday, April 21.

DATTAPURAM WORKED WITH CO-DEFENDANTS TO SUBMIT FRAUDULENT APPLICATIONS

Dattapuram was a co-founder of Nanosemantics, Inc, a staffing firm based in San Jose that provided skilled workers to Bay Area tech companies. Nanosemantics earned a commission for each worker it placed with a client company.

The firm received a commission for workers placed at client companies. Nanosemantics regularly submitted H-1B petitions for foreign workers so that they could obtain temporary authorisation to live and work for employers in the US.

To secure an H-1B visa, an employer must submit a Form I-129 petition to US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). This petition, along with other documents, must confirm that a job is available for the worker, specify its duration, and include key details such as wages.

Dattapuram worked with his co-defendants to submit fraudulent H-1B applications that falsely represented that foreign workers had specific jobs waiting for them at designated end-client companies, when in fact the jobs did not exist, the statement added.

DATTAPURAM SCHEME GIVES NANOSEMANTICS EDGE OVER COMPETITORS

On multiple occasions, Dattapuram paid companies to be listed as end-clients for foreign workers, even though he knew the workers would never work for those employers.

As the defendants admitted, the goal of the scheme was to allow Dattapuram’s firm, Nanosemantics, to obtain visas for job candidates before securing jobs for them. That allowed Nanosemantics to place those workers with employers as soon as those jobs were available, rather than waiting for the visa application process to conclude — giving the firm an unfair advantage over its competitors.