Indian-American couple pleads guilty to $20 mn visa fraud

An Indian-American couple from Virginia has pleaded guilty to the charges of $20 million visa fraud involving Indian workers, the Justice Department has said.

Raju Kosuri, 44, and Smriti Jharia, 45, a married couple from Ashburn, Virginia were indicted on April 27.

According to the statement of facts filed with the plea agreement, Kosuri, Jharia and their co-conspirators fraudulently applied for more than 900 illegal immigration benefits under the H-1B visa program.

Since 2008, and at much greater scale since 2011, Kosuri has built a staffing business that amounts to a visa-for-sale system, in violation of federal law, the Justice Department said.

Kosuri and Jharia also admitted to defrauding the Small Business Administration in connection with a scheme to obtain HUBZone certification for a business named EcomNets Federal Solutions.

Kosuri agreed to forfeit proceeds of his fraud schemes in the amount of $20,900,000, a media release said.