H-1B Visa Fraud: Two Indian-origin Men Plead Guilty in California; Hiring people for jobs that don’t exist – The

Two Indian-origin men have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit H-1B visa fraud by recruiting foreign nationals, promising them jobs at UCLA, when the university had no such requirements.

Sampath Rajidi, 51, and Sridhar Madha, 51, filed H-1B visa petitions for several beneficiaries between June 2020 and January 2023. After those petitions were approved, the two then gave H-1B visas to other clients. Sampath Rajidi has run two visa services companies S-Team Software Inc. and Uptrend Technologies LLC. Mada’s position as CIO at the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources helped the duo plan this fraud. Mada had inside information about the university and had supervisory authority, but he could not hire H-1B workers in his department without permission from higher up. But as part of the conspiracy, Mada submitted his name and position on H-1B petitions, leading USCIS to believe they were actually hiring at the university. Court documents confirmed that both were aware that the jobs listed in the petitions did not exist and supplied other customers with H-1B aircraft.

“They provided false information knowing that this information was material to USCIS decisions regarding the granting of visas. As a result of their conspiracy, Raggedy and Mada gained an unfair advantage over other companies and depleted the pool of H-1B visas available to competing companies,” the court document said.

The two defendants face a maximum legal penalty of five years in prison and a fine of $250,000. The administration has launched a crackdown on H-1B visa abuse, which, as it turns out, has become a complex operation involving many levels of fraud. Some staffing companies like the one run by Sampath take H-1B money while others take regular cuts from their payments. Some scams are based on fake promises where the beneficiaries do not get the jobs they were promised.