WASHINGTON: US federal authorities have claimed to have
unearthed a major H-1B visa racket with the arrest of at least 11 persons, most
of them
suspected to be of
Indian origin.
Though the officials did not reveal the citizenship of
those arrested, the names released indicated that almost all of them are either
Indian or persons of Indian origin.
Vision Systems Group, an IT company
headquartered in South Plainfield New Jersey, has been indicted on 10 federal
counts including conspiracy and mail fraud charge. Viswa Mandalapu is its CEO
and president, according to the information available on the company's website.
US attorney Matthew Whitker alleged that Vision Systems Group, with a
branch office in Coon Rapids, Iowa, used fraudulent documents to bring H-1B visa
workers into the country.
The government is seeking the forfeiture of
USD 7.4 million in proceeds raised through the alleged offenses.
"This
is just the tip of the iceberg as far as this investigation goes," he said.
Besides Vision System Groups, at least five other companies are under
investigations because of their alleged visa fraud. Two of them Worldwide
Software Services and Sana Systems are based in Iowa.
According to the
list of those arrested by the federal authorities, Shiva Neeli was arrested in
Boston; Ramakrishna Maguluri in Atlanta, Villiappan Subbaiah in Dallas and
Suresh Pola in Philadelphia.
Chockalingham Palaniappan and Vijay Myneni
were arrested in San Jose, California, while Venkata Guduru and Amit Justa were
arrested in New Jersey. One Karambir Yadav was also arrested. All the arrests
were made on Wednesday and on charges of conspiracy and mail fraud, the attorney
said.
Vishnu Reddy, president of Pacific West Corporation of Santa Clara
in California was arrested in Los Angeles. Praveen Andapally, president of
Venturisoft Inc in South Plainfield, New Jersey, was arrested in New Jersey on
charges of mail fraud, conspiracy and for false statement in immigration
matters.
According to the indictment Vision Systems failed to maintain a
permanent office for workers in Iowa, while most of its workers worked in
different states.
