An Indian-American couple from Virginia has pleaded guilty to visa fraud worth 20 million US dollars involving Indian workers, the Justice Department of US has said in a .
44-year-old Raju Kosuri and 45-year-old Smriti Jharia, a married couple from Ashburn, Virginia were indicted on April 27th.
The couple and their co-conspirators fraudulently applied for more than 900 illegal immigration benefits under the H-1B visa program, according to the statement of facts filed with the plea agreement.
The indictment alleges that Kosuri has set up a network of shell companies that he presented to immigration authorities as independent businesses in need of Indian workers, but which he in fact owned and controlled.
It alleged that Kosuri and his co-conspirators used these entities to file petitions for non-existent job vacancies at Kosuri's data center in Danville.
The visa fraud scheme involved the forgery of numerous individuals' signatures on visa petitions and exhibits without their knowledge.
The indictment alleged that Kosuri has generated gross proceeds of at least $20 million over the life of the scheme, the press release said.
Kosuri and Jharia also admitted to defrauding the Small Business Administration in connection with a scheme to obtain HUBZone certification for a business named EcomNets Federal Solutions.
on 25th August, the couple pleaded guilty and Kosuri agreed to forfeit proceeds of his fraud schemes in the amount of USD 20,900,000, a media release said.
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