Three Indian-origin men in US plead guilty to H-1B visa fraud scheme, face jail

Three Indian-origin men have pleaded guilty in an American federal court to charges of visa fraud and conspiracy, admitting to submitting fraudulent H-1B applications that falsely represented foreign workers to secure placements for skilled tech workers in the US. They now face jail terms for the two offences.

Kishore Dattapuram, 55, of Santa Clara, California, Kumar Aswapathi, 55, of Austin, Texas, and Santosh Giri, 48, of San Jose, California, were charged with one count of conspiracy to commit visa fraud and 10 counts of substantive visa fraud in an indictment filed on February 28, 2019. Aswapathi pleaded guilty on October 19, 2020, Giri on October 28, 2024, and Dattapuram in November 2024, according to the US Attorney’s Office.

Dattapuram and Aswapathi owned and operated Nanosemantics, Inc, a staffing firm based in San Jose that provided skilled workers to Bay Area tech companies. Nanosemantics earned a commission for each worker it placed with a client company.

Giri worked closely with Nanosemantics and also owned LexGiri, a separate business that provided legal process outsourcing services and acted as a "remote-virtual corporate immigration specialist" for companies.

Nanosemantics regularly filed H-1B petitions for foreign workers. According to court records, the H-1B programme allows foreign workers to obtain temporary authorisation to live and work in the US.

To secure an H-1B visa, an employer must submit a Form I-129 petition to US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). This petition, along with other documents, must confirm that a job is available for the worker, specify its duration, and include key details such as wages.

In pleading guilty, Dattapuram admitted to working with Aswapathi and Giri to submit fraudulent H-1B applications that falsely represented that foreign workers had specific jobs waiting for them at designated companies when in fact these jobs did not exist.

Dattapuram paid companies to be listed as end-clients for the foreign workers, even though he knew the workers would not actually work for those employers.

The scheme was intended to allow Nanosemantics to obtain visas for job candidates before securing jobs for them, allowing the company to place workers quickly once jobs became available and giving Nanosemantics an unfair advantage over competitors.

Dattapuram’s and Giri’s sentencing hearings are scheduled for February 24, 2025, before US District Judge Edward J Davila. Aswapathi has a status hearing regarding sentencing on November 25, 2024, before Judge Davila.

Each defendant faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 for each visa fraud count, and a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 on the conspiracy count.