Investigation by the Labor Department.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: An Indianapolis-based physical therapy clinic has been ordered to pay a six-figure sum in restitution by the US Department of Labor, after it was discovered that the company was engaging in H-1B visa fraud.
Access Therapies Inc. has been ordered to pay $81,454 in civil penalties and $39,946 in back pay to six physical therapists employed at the clinic. Additionally, Access Therapies will be debarred from participating in the H-1B visa program – which is used to bring in high-skilled immigrants to the US for temporary work assignments – for a full year.
An investigation by the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division revealed that Access Therapies was misrepresenting a number of facts when petitioning for H-1B visas for workers at its clinic. The investigation, which was launched in 2007, also found that Access Therapies never withheld applicable employment taxes, such as payments to Medicare, FICA and federal and state income tax – all of which will now need to be reimbursed to the proper authorities.
“The rules governing the employment of nonimmigrant workers in specialty occupations are specific and must be followed completely. Failing to do so denies qualified workers an opportunity for meaningful employment in the American economy,” said Thomas Gauza, district director for the Wage and Hour Division in Chicago, in a statement released on June 9. “This case shows that the department will not hesitate to bring legal action against employers that continue to short their employees and violate the law.”
While the H-1B employees in question were not named in the Department of Labor’s press release, Access Therapies has been involved in litigation with former employees that are of Indian origin, including Rituraj Singh Panwar, Smita Radhakrishnan, and Sucharita Anantaneni.
Access Therapies has responded to the penalties by saying that the federal government is being unduly harsh. In a statement, the company says that it has always been compliant with the government’s investigation, and says it’s “disappointed” in the $121,400 worth of penalties levied against it.
“Over a period of several years, the Federal Government requested and was given access to all of Access Therapies’ records and documents,” read the statement, which the company issued on Friday. “Federal agents and Government Officials examined those records in detail. Those records encompassed nearly $35 million in payroll paid by Access Therapies to its employees.”
“Access Therapies vigorously disputed the allegations made by the Federal Government. However, and after several years of investigations and litigation prosecuted by the federal government, Access Therapies agreed to a settlement requiring payment of $39,946 in back wages,” the statement also said. “This is a very small percentage of the total payroll paid by Access Therapies during the time in question.”
In an email to local ABC News Channel 6, Access Therapies attorney Gary Welsh said the Labor Department should be “ashamed” of itself for pursuing such harsh fines, and placed much of the blame at the feet of RN Staff, a staffing agency that was apparently used by Access Therapies to file the H-1B applications for the workers in question.
This staffing agency is not mentioned anywhere in the Department of Labor’s press release.