
Couple Pleads Guilty to $20M Visa Fraud Involving Indian Workers - mavelikara
https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/pr/couple-pleads-guilty-20-million-visa-fraud-involving-indian-workers
======
achow
A Romantic Start that Turned into a $20 Million H-1B Fraud Case.
[http://cis.org/north/20-million-h-1b-fraud-
case](http://cis.org/north/20-million-h-1b-fraud-case)

Excerpt:

This was no one-off offense, like a solitary bank robbery. This was crime on a
massive, industrial, assembly-line scale. There are, in this indictment:

\- Six defendants

\- Seven different federal crimes charged

\- 27 counts in the indictment, involving

\- 800 illegal migrants, resulting in

\- $20 million in ill-gotten gains to be forfeited.

The scale is breathtaking, and the feds' ignorance of it for years is as if
the Confederacy had not noticed Sherman's march to the sea.

The list (of assets that were seized) includes a 2010 Mercedes 400S sedan,
three pieces of real estate, and 29 bank accounts held by the defendants and
companies that they control. The total value of all this swag is noted as
$20.7 million, but there are no statements about the size of each individual
asset.

Mysteries Within the Indictment.

This leads to one of the multitudinous mysteries within the indictment. If
Kosuri and his wife were securing funding from 800 illegal aliens (posing as
H-1B workers) and if they had secured over $20 million in loot, why would they
bother defrauding SBA of such small sums? In one case they applied for an SBA
benefit, were rejected, applied again, were rejected again, and then
apparently got what they wanted on the third attempt (once again, the
indictment does not say so, but that sequence is implied.)

Similarly, they seemed to have only one, six-year-old vehicle worth seizing,
the Mercedes, and Loudoun County (Va.) property appraisals show their home as
being worth a bit over $800,000, fairly typical of the Ashburn area where they
lived. Neither of these are signs of real affluence.

These indicators suggest one of two things: 1) they were engaged in a manic
effort to squeeze as much money as possible out of the system, without
spending too much of it; or 2) they were not managing their illicit house of
cards very competently. I suspect some of both, but the indictment sheds no
light on either.

~~~
lostboys67
Or they managed to launder cash to some other country

~~~
senthil_rajasek
"Kosuri agreed to forfeit proceeds of his fraud schemes in the amount of
$20,900,000."

~~~
lostboys67
But is that only what the feds found they might have exfitrated more back to
family back home

------
rdtsc
> EcomNets, Inc., Data Systems, Inc., United Software Solutions, Inc., Unified
> Systems, Inc., United Technologies, Inc., Citrix Software, Inc., Agility
> Software, Inc., American Eagle Software, Inc., Climetrics, Inc.,
> Immigration, LLC,and EcomNets Federal Solutions, LLC (also known as
> GovSecurity, LLC)

Lovely.

"I know, we'll name our company American Eagle, Inc. No government official
will dare touch something as patriotic as that. They worship that bird here,
we should be safe".

But wonder if Citrix Systems' and American Eagle Outfitters clothing company
laywers might want a word with them.

At least in case of Citrix it is the same market, so there are probably
trademark issues involved? Pretty sure it shouldn't be legal to call your
company Google LLC or Facebook Software Inc.

------
0xmohit
Good to see that there are countries where the law works.

In India, it usually doesn't [0].

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vijay_Mallya](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vijay_Mallya)

------
DrScump
He only had to forfeit the proceeds? Wow, _that 'll_ teach 'em!

Note how he started and grew his business right in the depth of the recession,
starting in 2008.

~~~
mavelikara
I think he is facing jail term too.

------
mavelikara
Indictment: [http://www.slideshare.net/BigJoe5/usa-v-raju-kosuri-et-al-
no...](http://www.slideshare.net/BigJoe5/usa-v-raju-kosuri-et-al-
no-16cr00043lmb-ed-va-april-26-2016-indictment-h1b-visa-fraud-scheme)

Plea: [https://www.scribd.com/document/322254486/Kosuri-
Plea](https://www.scribd.com/document/322254486/Kosuri-Plea)

------
coldcode
Only the ones they caught, eventually. Like ripping off the DoD or Medicare
much of it is never found, or is ignored.

------
mavelikara
Although the court document lists his name as Raju Kosuri, the defendant seems
to use the name Raj Kosuri in professional circles - see
[http://www.ecomnets.com/executive-team/](http://www.ecomnets.com/executive-
team/).

------
mohsinr
Not sure but could it be that he also looted money from his victims he issued
visa, those 800 workers, as in our country people pay a lot to agents to get
visas...

Not sure if those 800 workers have any recourse...

------
biocomputation
Strip them of their citizenship.

Now.

~~~
arachnids
Creating a second class citizenship that can be taken away undermines
democracy. Either give someone citizenship or do not. If we do and they fuck
up, they're our problem.

~~~
rdtsc
Not necessarily. People have been stripped of citizenship if it was determined
they obtained it fraudulently, that is lying on the forms or during an
interview with an immigration official.

So, actually what gp is suggesting is not completely implausible.

~~~
mahmud
On the other hand, making citizenships "sticky" can dissuade people from some
crimes BECAUSE they're citizens.

In the war of terrorism, U.S-citizens caught fighting for Al-Qaeda/ISIS are
tried for treason (potentially carrying a death penalty) while foreign
fighters could be afforded the luxury of the Geneva Convention rights.

And yes, I am a naturalized US citizen.

~~~
danieltillett
I think those in Guantanamo might care to disagree that they were afforded the
luxury of the Geneva convention.

~~~
hga
They're enjoying the luxury of our ridiculous ... softness? Good will isn't
quite it, internecine political warfare for sure. The people imprisoned there
were unlawful combatants, and to among other things strongly encourage
_lawful_ combat, they enjoy no protection, they can, for example, be
immediately executed.

~~~
danieltillett
I don’t think if you were imprisoned there that you would think it was soft.

Many of those picked up were fighting for the government of Afghanistan at the
time so they should have been considered lawful combatants. The whole reason
they were put in Guantanamo at the time was to keep them out of the reach of
the Geneva convention.

I am hardly a support of islam or any of the cranks and criminals doing acts
of terror - my opposition to what was and is still being done to Guantanamo is
it totally counterproductive. It is the equivalent to a take no prisoners
policy in war. If you want to bolster the enemy make surrender equal death and
watch while every battle becomes a fight to the last man.

------
known
[http://www.petition2congress.com/20324/expel-indian-
american...](http://www.petition2congress.com/20324/expel-indian-americans-
from-usa/)

