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Bay Area Visa Fraud Ring Busted
Four individuals, Sunitha Guntipally, Venkat Guntipally, Pratap ‘Bob’ Kondamoori, and Sandhya Ramireddi, have been charged with conspiracy to commit visa fraud, use of false documents, and mail fraud, among other offenses.
According to a 33-count indictment, the four defendants allegedly used three California corporations to orchestrate the improper submission of more than one hundred H-1B visa applications. The indictment identifies Venkat and Sunitha Guntipally, of Fremont, as a husband and wife team who founded and owned DS Soft Tech and Equinett, two employment-staffing companies for technology firms.
Kondamoori, of Incline Village, Nev., is alleged to be the founder and owner of SISL Networks. Kondamoori’s sister, Ramireddy, of Pleasanton, is alleged to have been the human resources manager and operations manager of all three companies.
The H-1B Specialty Occupation Workers Program allows an employer to temporarily employ a foreign worker in the United States on a nonimmigrant basis in a specialty occupation. A specialty occupation requires the theoretical and practical application of a body of specialized knowledge and a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent in the specific specialty.
According to the indictment, the defendants submitted to the government, or caused to be submitted, H-1B visa application materials stating that the foreign workers named in the applications would be placed at specific companies in the United States. However, those companies either did not exist or never intended to receive the foreign workers named in the defendants’ applications.
The indictment alleges that between approximately 2012 and 2013, DS Soft Tech and Equinett submitted approximately 22 separate petitions, signed under penalty of perjury, for H-1B workers to be placed at a company called SemSolar, Inc., operated by Kondamoori. Although the petitions and supporting documents stated that the foreign workers would be placed at SemSolar to work on a specific software product, the defendants allegedly knew that SemSolar was not working on that product, the defendants did not intend to place any of the H-1B workers at SemSolar, and none of the workers who received H-1B visas through the defendants’ scheme ever worked at SemSolar.
The indictment alleges that through their ownership, direction, and control of DS Soft Tech and Equinett, the Guntipallys generated net profits from 2010 to 2014 of approximately $3.3 million and gross profits of approximately $17 million.
All four defendants are charged with conspiracy to commit visa fraud, false statements, mail fraud, obstruction of justice, and witness tampering, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371; visa fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1546(a); use of false documents, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001(a)(3); mail fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1341; and aiding and abetting these offenses, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2.
The indictment was filed yesterday, and the four defendants are set to appear in court soon. This case is a result of an ongoing investigation by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the U.S. State Department, Diplomatic Security Service, San Francisco Field Office.
Key Facts
- State: California
- Category: White Collar Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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