Raju Kosuri and his wife Smriti Jharia duped Indian workers.
AB Wire
WASHINGTON, DC: An Indian American couple, Raju Kosuri, 44, and Smriti Jharia, 45, of Ashburn, Virginia, as well as four co-conspirators, were indicted by a federal grand jury in Virginia on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States and visa fraud, among other charges.
According to the indictment, Kosuri, his spouse Jharia, and their co-conspirators have fraudulently applied for more than 800 illegal immigration benefits under the H-1B visa program. Since 2008, and at much greater scale since 2011, Kosuri has built a staffing business that amounts to a visa-for-sale system, in violation of federal law, according to the Justice Department.
The indictment alleges that Kosuri has set up a network of shell companies that he presents to immigration authorities as independent businesses in need of Indian workers, but which he in fact owns and controls.
The indictment further alleges that Kosuri and his co-conspirators use these entities to file petitions for non-existent job vacancies at Kosuri’s data center in Danville. Kosuri is alleged to require workers to pay their own visa processing fees, in violation of H-1B program rules; and he is alleged to treat the beneficiaries as hourly contractors, again in violation of H-1B visa program rules.
The visa fraud scheme involves the forgery of numerous individuals’ signatures on visa petitions and exhibits without their knowledge. The indictment alleges that Kosuri has generated gross proceeds of at least $20 million over the life of the scheme.
Separately, the indictment alleges that Kosuri and Jharia conspired with a consultant named Raimondo Piluso to defraud the Small Business Administration, by submitting fraudulent HUBZone applications.
Kosuri, Jharia, and Piluso are alleged to have concealed the true location, ownership, and employees of a business called EcomNets Federal Solutions in order to obtain federal loan and contract preferences, from which they have generated $150,000 in loan proceeds and five contract awards.
Kosuri, Jharia, and Piluso face a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison, if convicted. The other co-conspirators face a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, if convicted.
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Two down, 2 lakh to go.