In a notable case of H-1B visa fraud, three Indian-origin men have confessed to exploiting the U.S. visa system to place skilled tech workers through falsified job offers.
Kishore Dattapuram, 55, of Santa Clara, California; Kumar Aswapathi, 55, of Austin, Texas; and Santosh Giri, 48, of San Jose, California, pleaded guilty to charges of visa fraud and conspiracy in a federal court, as announced by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California.
The fraud was uncovered through a comprehensive investigation by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), following an indictment filed in February 2019.
Dattapuram and Aswapathi operated Nanosemantics, Inc., a San Jose-based staffing firm that provided skilled workers to Bay Area tech companies.
Nanosemantics received commissions for employees placed at client companies, while Giri, owner of LexGiri, acted as a corporate immigration specialist.
Together, they submitted H-1B petitions for foreign workers, often misrepresenting the existence of specific jobs at designated companies.
In many instances, they paid companies to falsely list them as end-clients for workers who would never actually work there. This allowed Nanosemantics to secure visas before securing real jobs, giving the company an unfair advantage over competitors.
The scheme manipulated the H-1B system, which requires valid job offers for visa approval, allowing Nanosemantics to fill positions faster than competitors.
The defendants now face a potential 10-year sentence for their roles in the fraud.
