Posted on 10/06/2019 4:09:59 PM PDT by NobleFree
SEATTLE - The former CEO of two Bellevue tech firms was sentenced Friday to more than seven years in federal prison for a sophisticated visa fraud scheme that cheated workers out of their wages and cheated the government out of over $1 million in taxes.
Pradyumna Kumar Samal, 50, a citizen of India, then used the illegally obtained cash to enrich himself and fund a luxurious lifestyle, court records show.
Samal was arrested in August 2018 when he arrived on an international flight at Sea-Tac Airport and has been in custody ever since his arrest.
At the sentencing hearing U.S. District Judge James L. Robart said “Based on your time in the U.S. you have basically defrauded everyone you could defraud. ... You engaged in an extensive scheme ... driven by greed - nothing more, nothing less.”
U.S. Attorney Brian Moran called it "the largest and most sophisticated H-1B visa fraud scheme we have prosecuted in Western Washington."
"The fraud harmed the workers who wound up far from home ... with no pay and no job. It harmed foreign workers who legitimately sought, but could not get visas, and it harmed U.S. workers who were excluded from employment opportunities," Moran said.
According to records filed in the case, two companies incorporated by Samal engaged in a scheme sometimes referred to as "bench-and-switch," to exploit foreign national workers, compete unlawfully in the market and defraud the U.S. government.
Both companies were in the business of providing information-technology workers, such as software development engineers, to major corporate clients.
Court records say Samal submitted forged and false application materials to the U.S. government, making it appear as if foreign-national employees named in the petitions had been earmarked for projects contracted to Samal’s companies by end clients. In fact, these project assignments were fictitious, according to court documents.
The forged documents included forged letters and fraudulent statements of work that appeared as if they had been signed by senior executives at Samal’s clients. After the government OK'd the applications, Samal's companies "benched" the foreign nationals - left them unpaid and forced them to submit phony sick and annual leave requests until they were able to place those employees at actual end clients, court files show.
More than 250 workers were brought in under the phony applications. The employees were forced to pay Samal’s companies a partially refundable “security deposit” of as much as $5,000 for the visa filings, regardless of whether they were assigned to any projects that provided them with income.
Not only did Samal’s companies fail to pay the clients, it also failed to pay more than $1 million in employment taxes. He then used the fradulently obtained money to buy a luxury car, pay his mortgage and pad his personal accounts in India, court documents say.
Samal has agreed to pay restitution of $1,119,867 for the tax loss. In addition, Judge Robart imposed a $10,000 fine.
A whole $10,000 fine.... ???
No one in the industry will see a pay raise because of this market manipulation of pay scale
I’m so tired of the doj not going after elites.
Why should this matter. All it shows is a two tired system.
Enough. Jury nullification until the elites get justice.
[ SEATTLE - The former CEO of two Bellevue tech firms was sentenced Friday to more than seven years in federal prison for a sophisticated visa fraud scheme that cheated workers out of their wages and cheated the government out of over $1 million in taxes. ]
Make that triple-time and it will be more appropriate.
If the top few percent of the wealthy in the US weren’t driven by greed not only would the H1-B program be very small, China would have never become as powerful as it has become.
And the reason we need 300,000 more guys like this in our country is....?
“Pradyumna Kumar Samal, 50, a citizen of India, then used the illegally obtained cash to enrich himself and fund a luxurious lifestyle, court records show.”
First he was not an American citizen.
“Samal was arrested in August 2018 when he arrived on an international flight at Sea-Tac Airport and has been in custody ever since his arrest.”
So, was Samal a lone ranger or was/is he the tip of the iceberg re fraud like this in America.
Who was our President, when this criminal was busted?
Like Jack "Neutron Bomb" Welch of GE, and the folks at McKinsey?
(You know, the Jack Welch who divorced his wife in favor of the female employee of Harvard Business Review who interviewed him?
"We didn't give her lifetime marriage, we gave her 'lifetime marriageability".
And I think he tried for a $2 million/yr for life pension as part of his severance package from GE.
Hanging is too good for someone that unspeakably greedy.
+1
Diversity. It's our strength! (hack, cough, *spit*)
Mark Zuckerberg doesn't have enough ivory back-scratchers.
Lock him up and lose the key. Foreign criminals do not belong here.
How many h1bs hired by our govt? If the VA is any indication, the high paying careers are not citizens.
Every h1b company is saving millions upon millions by dodging citizen taxes... and paying low wages.
So why is this program allowed..
Seems to be a collusion between universities and corporations and our governmentallowing it.
The question is why.
Is an H1B free to own the land under his feet?
Is an H1B free to find a different job & boss?
Is an H1B free to have his family around?
Is an H1B free to have a Bill of Rights?
NO! He is a slave in violation of the 13th & 14th Amendments.
There is a large Indian community where I live North of Atlanta. Many of whom own houses. Nice ones. H-1B’s can have their family around by bringing their spouses over on H4AED Visas and then their extended family comes over as well through chain migration or whatever scam they are pulling and get on social security. I don’t really see them as slaves. They aren’t citizens here and are always free to go home.
H1B bump for later....
We in the Tech world have been telling people this has been happening since the 90’s.
The Uniparty keeps throwing money at India and India companies.
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