United States immigration authorities have arrested an Indian on charges of running a visa fraud racket and seized $5.7 million from his bank and brokerage accounts.
Federal agents involved in the bust found that Narendra Mandalapa of New Jersey had filed nearly 1000 possibly fraudulent labour-based petitions on behalf of Indian and Pakistani nationals, who were seeking to enter the US or stay here. The petitions filed by Mandalapa were for skilled computer workers.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement have seized more than $5.7 million dollars from the suspect's bank and brokerage accounts.
Mandalapa has been charged with fraud and misuse of visas in a District Court in Newark, New Jersey. He is currently in the custody of the United States Marshals Service.
Mandalapa's arrest was a part of a joint anti-fraud initiative undertaken by the ICE, the USCIS and the Department of Labour's Office of Inspector General.
'The investigation began when a special fraud detection unit of the USCIS uncovered a pattern of fraud in petitions for immigration benefits submitted by Mandalapa through one of his companies', the ICE said in a press release.
The investigation which began involved the USCIS's Fraud Detection Unit, the Benefit Fraud Unit of the ICE and the field investigation involving a special agent in charge in Newark. The end result was the arrest and the asset seizure.
The investigation has, thus far, uncovered two 'shell' companies in New Jersey owned by Mandalapa, which were created solely for the purpose of filing fraudulent labour based petitions for foreign workers.
Agents, during the course of their investigations, have also seized computers and documents from the corporate address of Cybersoftec, Inc.
It is believed that $2.1 million came from fees paid by individuals who were seeking fraudulent benefits. All of the money has now been seized by the government with the assets coming from four bank accounts in Edison, New Jersey and two brokerage accounts in New York.
Also seized were a Mercedes SUV and a Lexus Sedan with a combined value of $100,000.
"Immigration benefit fraud is a multi-billion dollar business and cannot be tolerated.This type of fraud not only steals jobs from legitimate workers but it also provides individuals to illegally enter the United States and creates a risk to national security and public safety," Thomas Manifase, Acting Newark Special Agent in Charge said.