CHICAGO — In a brazen scheme, six individuals have been indicted for allegedly staging armed robberies in Chicago and its suburbs to apply for U.S. immigration visas.
According to an indictment unsealed in federal court in Chicago, PARITH NAYI, 26, of Woodridge, Ill., and KEWON YOUNG, 31, of Mansfield, Ohio, conspired to stage armed robberies at restaurants, coffee shops, liquor stores, and gas stations in Chicago and surrounding suburbs, including Lombard, Elmwood Park, St. Charles, Hickory Hills, River Grove, Lake Villa, and South Holland, as well as restaurants in Rayne, La., and Belvidere, Tenn.
The indictment alleges that the staged robberies were orchestrated to enable the purported victims, including BHIKHABHAI PATEL, 51, of Elizabethtown, Ky., NILESH PATEL, 32, of Jackson, Tenn., RAVINABEN PATEL, 23, of Racine, Wis., and RAJNIKUMAR PATEL, 32, of Jacksonville, Fla., to submit applications for U nonimmigrant status (U-visa), reserved for victims of certain crimes who have suffered mental or physical abuse and are helpful to law enforcement or government officials in an investigation or prosecution.
The indictment claims that individuals paid Nayi thousands of dollars to participate in the scam, during which individuals acting as robbers brandished what appeared to be firearms, approached the purported victims, and demanded money and property. After the staged robberies, some of the purported victims submitted forms to local law enforcement to obtain certification that they were victims of a qualifying crime and had been or would be helpful in the investigation.
Upon receiving certification, the purported victims then submitted fraudulent U-visa applications to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services predicated upon their alleged status as a robbery victim. Nayi, Young, Bhikhabhai Patel, Nilesh Patel, Ravinaben Patel, and Rajnikumar Patel are charged with conspiracy to commit visa fraud. Ravinaben Patel is also charged with an individual count of making a false statement in a visa application.
The conspiracy charge is punishable by a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison, while the false statement charge against Ravinaben Patel is punishable by up to ten years. The indictment was announced by Morris Pasqual, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Robert W. “Wes” Wheeler, Jr., Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI, and Sean Fitzgerald, Special Agent-in-Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Chicago.
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Key Facts
- State: Illinois
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: Official Source ↗
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