Satishkumar ‘Sam’ Patel, Daxaben S. Patel arrested on 45 counts.
AB Wire
NEW YORK: A married couple from Gujarat in India, Satishkumar ‘Sam’ Patel, 47, and his wife, Daxaben S. Patel, 36, who had bought a house, operated two businesses and had a large number of employees working for them, were arrested on 45 counts including document fraud and making false claims of U.S. citizenship.
According to the indictment, announced by US Attorney Barry Grissom, the couple unlawfully entered the United States in the 1990’s and have never acquired legal status to be here, reported Eyewitness News 12. Since then, the indictment alleges, the Patels have pretended to be U.S. citizens.
The couple bought a home in McPherson and obtained social security numbers by claiming to be undocumented but authorized to work. They were able to obtain Kansas driver’s licenses using their illegally obtained Social Security numbers.
The couple owned a gas station and convenience store in McPherson called Route 56 Express. They also owned a liquor store in Lawrence. Foreign nationals are not allowed to obtain a retail liquor license in Kansas.
The couple is also charged with multiple counts of harboring aliens unlawfully in the United States, both by employing them and by providing housing at the Patel’s McPherson home.
The indictment also charges four other people from India who were living in the country illegally, plus 53-year-old Nitin B. Patel, a business partner of Satishkumar Patel’s and two companies owned by the defendants.
The Patels face up to 20 years in prison for the bank fraud charge, 10 years for the document fraud charge, three years for the false claim of citizenship charges, and five years for the alien harboring, social security fraud, wire and mail fraud charges.
The McPherson Sentinel reported the indictment also seeks criminal forfeiture of money and property related to the alleged crimes, including the business, real estate, cash, and money held in bank accounts controlled by the Patels. Many of those assets were seized, Grissom said.
The indictment alleges the Patels were able to obtain a mortgage loan to buy the home by falsely claiming on the mortgage loan application that they were United States citizens. Satishkumar Patel also is charged with wire fraud for allegedly filing false quarterly unemployment insurance reports with the Kansas Department of Labor that listed only one employee, Daxaben Patel, for the McPherson gas station when, in fact, at least four other employees worked there.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reported the charges against Satishkumar Patel and Nitin B. Patel arise out of their ownership of a liquor store in Lawrence in which Satishkumar’s unlawful status in the U.S. and his ownership of the store allegedly were not properly disclosed to the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Division.