A San Jose staffing firm owner this week pleaded guilty in federal court to visa fraud and conspiracy to commit visa fraud.
Kishore Dattapuram’s plea follows that of two other defendants — Kumar Aswapathi and Santosh Giri. Each of the three was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit visa fraud and 10 counts of substantive visa fraud in a February 2019 indictment. Aswapathi pleaded guilty to all counts on Oct. 19, 2020. Giri pleaded guilty to all counts on Oct. 28, 2024.
Dattapuram and Aswapathy owned and operated Nanosemantics, Inc., a San Jose staffing firm that paired employees with tech companies throughout the Bay Area. Giri worked closely with them as the owner of a separate business, LexGiri, a legal process outsourcing firm that served as a remote virtual corporate immigration specialist for companies.
Together, the three business owners allegedly attempted to gain an unfair competitive advantage in the staffing industry by submitting fraudulent work visas — falsely claiming that foreign workers had specific jobs waiting for them that didn’t actually exist in order to bypass delays in the visa application process.
The defendants allegedly falsely claimed that foreign workers had specific jobs waiting for them that didn’t actually exist in order to bypass delays in the visa application process.
To secure an H-1B, or work visa, an employer or other sponsor must submit a petition and associated documents to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. The petition must confirm the existence of a job awaiting the foreign worker, while also citing key details such as job duration and wages.
Avoiding this process enabled the three to secure worker placements and commissions more efficiently than their competitors. Homeland Security Investigations with support from USCIS investigated the case.
Dattapuram and Giri are both scheduled for a sentencing hearing on Feb. 24, 2025, before U.S. District Judge Edward J. Davila. A court hearing or update on the status of Aswapathi’s sentencing is expected to occur in the coming weeks on Nov. 25, also before 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.
The post South Bay tech staffing firm owner pleads guilty to submitting fraudulent work visas appeared first on Local News Matters.