US government asks for paperwork related to filing for visas.

By Deepak Chitnis

WASHINGTON, DC: Analytics firm Mu Sigma, which has offices in the US and India, is under investigation by the US federal government over allegations that it has engaged in visa fraud.

According to statements issued by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dhiraj C. Rajaram, the US government has requested paperwork on all filings the company has for its visas, although he did not say if this was related to H-1B visas, specifically.

According to the Associated Press, Mu Sigma has brought about 150 workers into the US via H-1B visas over the last five years.

Between the 2011 and 2013 fiscal years, specifically, Mu Sigma filed roughly 630 Labor Condition Applications (LCAs) with the US Department of Labor in order to obtain H-1B visas for potential employees, and an additional 12 LCAs for green card applicants.

Last year alone, it filed 155 such applications for H-1B visas, of which 151 were granted and four were not

Mu Sigma is based in Northbrook, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, but has additional offices in Washington state, Arkansas, and Texas, the latter of which was recently announced as the site of the company’s new research center. Although it has offices in the UK, Singapore, and Australia, its main delivery center is in Bangalore, India, and it employs close to 3,000 people globally, most of whom are in the Bangalore office.

The company was founded by Rajaram, 39, in 2004, after his time at Booz Allen Hamilton and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC). The company offers businesses the ability to optimize their business models through data analytics, helping boost revenues and increase productivity. Privately held, Rajaram told the Chicago Tribune last year that the country is profitable, and has raised about $200 million in venture capital since its inception.

Rajaram earned his B.S. degree from the Guindy Anna University’s College of Engineering, located in Chennai, in 1996. He then earned his M.B.A. from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business in 2002. He worked briefly as a researcher at Motorola, in addition to his jobs at Booz Allen Hamilton and PWC, and currently overseas client management at Mu Sigma’s Bangalore base.

The investigation into Mu Sigma is reminiscent of the one filed against IT giant Infosys, which settled its visa fraud case with the US government last year for $34 million.

To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com