Bay Area Tech Executives Indicted For H-1B Visa Fraud (mercurynews.com)

New submitter s.petry quotes a report from The Mercury News: Two Bay Area tech executives are accused of filing false visa documents through a staffing agency in a scheme to illegally bring a pool of foreign tech workers into the United States. An indictment from a federal grand jury unsealed on Friday accuses Jayavel Murugan, Dynasoft Synergy's chief executive officer, and a 40-year-old Santa Clara man, Syed Nawaz, of fraudulently submitting H-1B applications in an effort to illegally obtain visas, according to Brian Stretch, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California. The men are charged with 26 counts of visa fraud, conspiracy to commit visa fraud, use of false documents, mail fraud and aggravated identity theft, according to prosecutors. Each charge can carry penalties of between two and 20 years in prison. Prosecutors say the men used fraudulent documents to bring workers into the U.S. and create a pool of H-1B workers to hire out to tech companies. The indictment charges that from 2010 to 2016, Dynasoft petitioned to place workers at Stanford University, Cisco and Brocade, but the employers had no intention of receiving the foreign workers named on the applications. Nawaz submitted fake "end-client letters" to the government, falsely claiming the workers were on-site and performing jobs, according to the indictment.

Slashdot reader s.petry adds: "While not the only problem with the H-1B Visa program, this is a start at investigating and hopefully correcting problems."

Comments

Jayavel Murugan

[turkeydance]

thanks. needed a new password.

Re:Jayavel Murugan

[Opportunist]

I was thinking along the lines of "We shouldn't let George Lucas name our CEOs".

Let it begin!

[Anonymous Coward]

I've been waiting for the Trump administration to get to the H1Bs.

Re:Let it begin!

[Anonymous Coward]

The US attorney who filed the indictment was appointed in March of 2016 by Obama. Now that he's called attention to himself, Trump will probably fire him.

Re:Let it begin!

[OrangeTide]

The fraudulent applications would have been people who were not qualified for the H1B program and effectively took a slot away from a qualified foreign worker. My guess is someone in India willing to fork over money to these guys stole a job from some college grad in India. The college grad might have actually be able to rise up and take jobs away from an American citizen. An incompetent fraud is not likely to hold down a job for long before being replaced. Which do you think is the bigger threat to American workers?

Re:Let it begin!

[jellomizer]

Yea right. The chances are once the H-1 problem is fixed the skills American will have to do the job at H-1 rate.
Companies don't want well paid middle class. They want rich executives that they can play golf with. Or the poor or near poor working class.
Us tech guys who are educated, experience and have our fingers on the companies vital components are a thorn in their plans.

Re:Let it begin!

[stealth_finger]

took a slot away from a qualified foreign worker. My guess is someone in India willing to fork over money to these guys stole a job from some college grad in India.

So now they're stealing American jobs from Indians in India? Mother fuckers!

Re:Let it begin!

[LifesABeach]

You forgot to say, "Tooth Fairies make nice friends."

Re: Let it begin!

[Anonymous Coward]

You guys realize both sides are calling each other the same thing ... right ?

Like watching 6 year Olds in the back seat.

Re: Let it begin!

[Dread_ed]

Except they're not 6 anymore and haven't been for decades.

It is incredibly frustrating to watch seemingly intelligent people lose all semblance of intellectual capacity when the subject of politics comes up.

Re:Let it begin!

[Tjp($)pjT]

This is actually quite common. They file as soon as H1-B season opens and there is no job or position for the worker. The applicants for the H1-B visas are large placement firms, and ostensibly have "hired" the worker already. What they file is that they work for the company in say, India, where the largest number of H1-Bs come from these days; but the worker is paid nothing until the placement firm lands them a job in America, and transfers the H1-B holding status to their American firm, either another placement firm, or after charging the worker a ton of fees, the actual American company (which is rare). They pay substandard wages to the worker as to be competitive they charge less than other job shops. The job shop can then undercut other job shops or even direct hire rates. The worker sees this as a fantastic salary, until they get here. But as a friend of mine found when he worked in Switzerland. They pay more, the expenses are more. But if you could save some money already you'll be able to put a lot more in savings. So the workers from India will be able to save more send money home, and when they become citizens sponsor their family to come to America. H1-Bs are not just about the individual worker. They can expedite getting whole families to America.

If H1-B visas were properly used it would benefit America. Unfortunately we aren't getting them in the hands of the best and brightest. We are getting them in the hands of people recruited off the street, promised a path of gold to untold riches, and then trained in a few weeks and issued a cut-rate certificate. The number of classically trained post graduate educated or proven performers recruited for filling H1-B slots is depressingly low. I know because a good portion of my work used to be cleaning up projects originally executed by outsourced and H1-B labor. Outsourced is the worst case and is thankfully declining, but the quality of work by the average H1-B worker is shockingly low caliber. So folks are brilliant. Lets modify the process to allow them and filter the dross.

Hell, it's about time.

[scatbomb]

We will no longer surrender this country, or its people, to the false song of globalism.

Re:Hell, it's about time.

[whoever57]

I think you have misunderstood these people's crimes.

Their real crime was that their illegal enterprise was too small.

Re:Hell, it's about time.

[Anonymous Coward]

LOL. Your government is owned by globalist corporations. Clean out your headgear.

Re:Hell, it's about time.

[Desler]

By electing a president of a multinational corporation who staffed his cabinet with globalist billionaires? Yeah, sure, bro.

Re:Hell, it's about time.

[Anonymous Coward]

1. The investigation that led to this started during Obama's presidency, has nothing to do with Trump.
2. Trump is a multi-millionaire or billionaire, many of the people he's appointed are similarly wealthy people. He's also appointed former top level Goldman Sachs employees. Steve Bannon also worked for Goldman Sachs.
3. I do hope he keeps this promise in regards to H1B visas, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
4. "Globalism" is a dog whistle for anti-immigration, anti-NATO, anti-EU, and anti-rich people with any bit of Jewish ancestry or who are not aligned right or far right, but all other rich people, like Trump, Bannon, Betsy Devos, Tillerson, Putin, Russian oligarchs, are all just fine.

Re:Hell, it's about time.

[ArylAkamov]

Nice of you to throw Jews in there so you can subtly claim they're all Nazis.

Re:Hell, it's about time.

[Anonymous Coward]

No it's true! Either you are with Globalization or you are a literal Nazi. There is no middle ground.

That system that caused two world wars, the great depression, created and expands the wealth gap, continues to support and expand human trafficking, international terrorism, and the global financial crisis...yeah if you oppose that you are a literal Nazi.

Oddly the reason why the German National Socialist Party was elected was to solve the problems globalization caused Germany during the great depression, sucked the wealth from their country, and caused a widespread increase in suicides and civil unrest...not unlike what the world is facing now. So in a manner globalists are correct in that the Nazis were against them, but nearly a century later they have not realized that they were the ones that created their own demons.

Re:Hell, it's about time.

[OrangeTide]

Trump is Schrodinger's president. He can be both an isolationist hate filled xenophobe and a globalist sellout at the same time, whichever his detractors think is worse in the moment!

Queue the mental gymnastics trying to show the president is a white supremacist yet is selling out his nation.

Think of the sort of person who will work with anyone and do anything to close the deal. But at the same time goes home to a gated community or walled mansion far removed from the plebeians.

Re:Hell, it's about time.

[speedplane]

None of them are in tech, though. Why should bankers and oil guys care about hurting silicon valley?

Their anti-science stance (e.g., 20% cut to NIH funding), will have ripple effects throughout silicon valley.

Re:Hell, it's about time.

[Hognoxious]

It wasn't globalisation that screwed the Weimar economy. It was the fine slapped on them for being very naughty in 1914.

Re:Hell, it's about time.

[parkinglot777]

So far, I see Collins is still on board, funding actually increased, regulations actually down, science visa processing actually streamlined (my colleague got his in 3 days, instead of Obama's 2-3 months). At NIH, they actually paid for travel this year (Obama was constantly cock-blocking the researchers from conferences).

Are you naive or stupid? Which approved budget the NIH is now spending? You need to look for the meaning of fiscal year and how government budgeting works before you spout this nonsensical statement.

Re:Hell, it's about time.

[Shatrat]

They did nothing in 1914 that wasn't being done by other European nations. The fine was not for entering the war, but for losing it. That's why after WW2 we took the opposite approach with the Marshall plan.

Jayavel Murugan...Syed Nawaz

[Anonymous Coward]

Is anyone surprised given their names? People that grew-up outside of the US just aren't exposed to our moral and ethical systems. Every Indian or Pakistani I've worked for has broken the law. They just don't care.

Re: Jayavel Murugan...Syed Nawaz

[clovis]

I was taking a non-professional course on the law a few months ago. IANAL. The other attendees were attorneys, college professors, and the like.

The attorney making the presentation that day was talking about a hospital doctor accused of making a mistake and who denied that he had done what he was accused of. The people initially involved in the investigation at this point were just the patient and the doctor, so at this point it was just a he said/she said situation.

The attorney wanted to mention a couple of cultural differences. The doctor was extremely upset that someone had basically accused him of not telling the truth. The attorney said that the doctor felt like in his culture his reputation was the most important thing about him and so he said that he could never say anything that was untrue. And furthermore, anyone contradicting him was committing a grave insult so that's why the nurses should not be asked to testify. Someone asked, "what was his culture that truthful reputation was so important", and the presenter said "Well, he's from India".
I have never heard a group of lawyers and college professors laugh so hard. It was several minutes before they calmed down.

Re:Jayavel Murugan...Syed Nawaz

[Anonymous Coward]

All Indians and Pakistanis are criminals. Got it.

About 9 out of 10 in my experience, but it helps to understand where they come from. In India and Pakistan the governments are run by corrupt thieves who won't lift a finger without a bribe. In fact government bureaucrats are so corrupt over there that practically the only thing they won't steal is a red hot stove. It's quite literally impossible to get anything official done in India or Pakistan without at least a few bribes and the laws are such that just about every transaction in life passes through the domain of some petty bureaucrat with his hand out for a bribe. In other words, it's completely corrupt over there. The problem arises when these Indians and Pakistanis come to a comparatively more honest country, like the United States, where we don't run things that way. They start using their old bag of tricks and then are surprised when Americans or Europeans call them out on it. You see, in their minds laws are nothing more than rules made to be broken or bypassed, morals don't even enter into their calculus on such matters.

I hope the Feds destroy their lives.

[Anonymous Coward]

The "alleged" behavior is wrong in so many ways it's hard to even know where to begin. Damaged parties include the US government,
the LEGAL US workers who didn't get jobs because of these swine, the illegally "imported" workers who were quite likely screwed by
the perpetrators skimming significant percetages of their wages, etc.

It's a shame these pieces of shit couldn't just be stoned to death as a public example.

What's so important about Syed Nawaz's age?

[techno-vampire]

Why does TFS go out of its way to tell us that Syed Nawaz is 40, while not mentioning how old Jayavel Murugan is. Is there something significant about being 40 that I'm missing?

Re:What's so important about Syed Nawaz's age?

[necro81]

Why does TFS go out of its way to tell us that Syed Nawaz is 40, while not mentioning how old Jayavel Murugan is. Is there something significant about being 40 that I'm missing?

Ah, see, that's called editing. We don't do that here.

Only 2 guys, and only 26 counts?

[Narcocide]

That's not even a dent in this problem. Laundering H1B visas is the mainstay of the IT industry.

Re:Can't be

[molarmass192]

Got me thinking for a second there, didn't know how many universities there were here in 'merica. In case anybody gets asked on Jeopardy, it's 2474. Not quite 3M, but still almost 50 ***per state***!!!

Jayavel Murugan and Syed Nawaz

[sycodon]

Doing the fraud Americans won't do.

You live in a big leftist city, right?

[Anonymous Coward]

There are still plenty of Americans who do business on a handshake, do not ever screw eachother on business, and never need the courts to resolve business arguments. There are many American businessmen who will help their competitors when those competitors suffer a natural disaster or a family emergency. Get out of NYC, LA, SF, Chicago, etc and you'll find lots of decent civilized Americans.

Of course, if you live in a typical magalopolis populated by amoral idiots, then all bets are off... and ultimately even the courts cannot save you because the judges, witnesses and jury members do not believe in and uphold oaths.

Just sayin.

Re:You live in a big leftist city, right?

[sexconker]

Get out of NYC, LA, SF, Chicago, etc and you'll find lots of decent civilized Americans.

This is very fucking accurate. So many people have no fucking clue what the USA is because they've been stuck in overcrowded cities with no humanity their entire lives. The sad part is that they mock anyone who doesn't live in a big city, calling them ignorant, backwards, intolerant etc. when those labels more accurately fit themselves.

Re:You live in a big leftist city, right?

[FooAtWFU]

While I won't disagree with the sentiments about how feasible it is to conduct business, as I've never attempted it in the described territories, I have a very close friend attempting to regain custody of her child where, at the father's request, the judge agreed to postpone the case from December until the end of turkey-hunting season.

This is a special local quirk for the jurisdiction, but more generally, when the degree of social cohesion in an area is just a bit too good then the good-old-boy networks turn into a source of abuse, not of strength.

Re:You live in a big leftist city, right?

[Howitzer86]

Out of curiosity, when do you think a city is too big? I have a friend telling me I should move to the bigger ones, especially on the coasts to get a better understanding of what's happening to us politically and socially. Talking to him makes me feel like I'm living in Mayberry. I want to be able to say that he's being overly dramatic, but he (and you) may have a point.

Re:You live in a big leftist city, right?

[kilfarsnar]

Get out of NYC, LA, SF, Chicago, etc and you'll find lots of decent civilized Americans.

This is very fucking accurate. So many people have no fucking clue what the USA is because they've been stuck in overcrowded cities with no humanity their entire lives. The sad part is that they mock anyone who doesn't live in a big city, calling them ignorant, backwards, intolerant etc. when those labels more accurately fit themselves.

Those overcrowded cities are part of what the USA is. It's a big, diverse country. While people in cities can be assholes, people in rural areas can be pretty hostile to anyone considered an outsider. Different places, different problems.

Is this news?

[rsilvergun]

I'm wondering if this is actually news (e.g. that enforcement is starting to happen) or if this has been going on and just not reported? H1-B visa fraud is nothing new. There's videos on youtube with lawyers talking about strategies to game the system. I've known people laid off and promptly replaced by H1-Bs, which by definition is illegal since there was already a qualified American.

So I gotta ask, is this really news? Or just reporting?

Re:Is this news?

[chiguy]

You, like everyone here, get the general intent of the H-1B program correct, but you miss the legal loophole that tech companies put in. It requires companies to prove they're not displacing American workers OR pay H-1B holders $60,000. Guess which option companies choose?

https://www.theatlantic.com/bu...

"In 1998—during the tech bubble—lawmakers amended the law to provide more visas at the request of the growing tech industry. At the same time, legislators cracked down on outsourcing companies that were employing large numbers of H-1B workers from Asia, and then contracting them out to American companies looking to save money. Though these consultants are typically called “outsourcing firms,” in a sense their work related to the H-1B visa program is better described as “insourcing,” since what they’re doing is helping companies find workers abroad whom they bring here for new jobs.

Under the amended law, companies that rely heavily on H-1B workers (more than 15 percent of their workforce) would now face additional scrutiny when applying for visas. These companies would have to promise not only that their H-1B workers would not replace American employees at their own company, but that they wouldn’t be used as replacements at firms that the company had contracts with either.

The new requirement would have provided some additional security for American workers, but a seemingly small, yet significant exemption was also written into the law. It allows those same H-1B reliant companies to ignore the requirements about protecting American jobs as long as they pay the foreign workers at least $60,000 a year, or hire a foreign worker with a master’s degree. It’s unclear why this exemption was included, though critics of the H-1B program say tech companies lobbied for it to undermine the new, tougher restrictions that might impact their ability to hire foreign workers. Considering the average IT worker in the United States makes far more than $60,000, that exemption makes it lucrative—and legal—for companies to displace American workers with cheaper H-1B workers. And it effectively undoes the additional protections of the 1998 bill."

The Difference

[SuperKendall]

He's also appointed former top level Goldman Sachs employees.

The difference is that some of Trump's people USED to be paid by Goldman Sachs.

Hillary (and Obama) were ACTIVLEY BEING PAID by Goldman Sachs.

Just do a quick search at how much GS has contributed to Hillary (~$1 million) vs. Trump ($0).

Now let's start seeing convictions.

[sethstorm]

Indictments are one thing, but actual scalps are another.

Re:Globalization vs "Globalism" (NWO rebranded)

[OrangeTide]

1. Wikipedia isn't a valid source of anything.

Wikipedia is a good starting place for a summary and references. Those references can be validated.
Note that the poster did not simply quote wikipedia and expect you to accept it as fact. But referenced what amounts to an essay that contains several citations. You can choose to read it or not, and you can dispute those citations if you wish. But trying to have a general ban on the use of wikipedia in any discussion is not reasonable.

as per my usual stand

[superwiz]

It won't "end" until H1B visas are substituted for a different type of visa: an alien resident visa (aka a "Green Card"). H1B program is meant to bring skilled workers to the country. If they can't leave their employers on a whim, they are not employees. They are indentured servants. Their path to citizenship is delayed by 4-5 years. Some even feel entitled at the end of that hazing path to pick up the whip to become the "master". Those two are likely the result of this. End their second-class-citizens status or you'll never solve the "not enough people pursue careers in tech" problem. It's not about salaries. It's about endemic lowering of the work-place status of the people in tech. It has all the glory of a mailroom, just with more money.

Its a start

[thunderclees]

Now its time to indict the rest of them.

Re:George Soros, the Rothschilds

[moeinvt]

Wealth is not the determining factor.

You either believe in the idea of sovereign nations with borders, autonomous governments & a national identity

OR

you believe in open borders, unfettered immigration and subverting national sovereignty to international institutions.

Trump, Steve Bannon, the Koch brothers and Putin are nationalists.

George Soros & The Rothschilds are globalists.

Wealthy people tend to be globalists because they benefit from policies like free trade & open borders, but it's not a given that a rich person is a globalist