Kishore Dattapuram, Visa Fraud, California 2024

Kishore Dattapuram Pleads Guilty to Visa Fraud

SAN JOSE, California - In a major blow to the technology staffing industry, Kishore Dattapuram, 55, of Santa Clara, pleaded guilty in federal court to visa fraud and conspiracy to commit visa fraud.

Dattapuram, along with two other defendants, Kumar Aswapathi and Santosh Giri, were charged with one count of conspiracy to commit visa fraud and 10 counts of substantive visa fraud. Aswapathi pleaded guilty to all counts on October 19, 2020, while Giri pleaded guilty on October 28, 2024.

The indictment filed on February 28, 2019, alleged that Dattapuram and Aswapathi owned and operated Nanosemantics, Inc., a staffing firm headquartered in San Jose that provided skilled employees to technology companies in the Bay Area. Giri worked closely with Nanosemantics and was also the owner of a separate business, LexGiri, a legal process outsourcing firm.

As part of their scheme, Dattapuram and his co-conspirators submitted fraudulent H-1B applications that falsely represented that foreign workers had specific jobs waiting for them at designated end-client companies. In reality, the jobs did not exist, and Dattapuram paid companies to be listed as end-clients for the foreign workers.

The goal of the scheme was to allow Nanosemantics to obtain visas for job candidates before securing jobs for them, thereby giving the company an unfair advantage over its competitors.

Dattapuram's sentencing hearing is scheduled for February 24, 2025, before the Honorable Edward J. Davila, U.S. District Judge. Giri's sentencing hearing is also scheduled for February 24, 2025, before Judge Davila. Each defendant faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 for each visa fraud count, and a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 on the conspiracy count.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/owner-san-jose-based-technology-staffing-firm-pleads-guilty-visa-fraud-conspiracy