They allegedly assisted foreign 'students' in fraudulently obtaining immigration documents from the varsity and facilitated the creation of false student records.

Tens of people, the overwhelming majority of whom are highly likely to be Indian citizens or of Indian origin, have been arrested across cities in the U.S. in connection with student visa fraud charges, according to court documents, news reports, first hand witness accounts, legal and diplomatic sources accessible to The Hindu. Emerging patterns suggest most of the individuals are of Telugu origin.

Eight of these individuals were arrested on counts of conspiracy to commit visa fraud and to harbour aliens (non-U.S. citizens) for profit, according to the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Michigan, Southern Division, a statement from the office of the U.S. Attorney for the District, Matthew Schneider, said. Of these eight arrests, six were made in Detroit, one in Florida and one in Virginia.

In addition to the eight “educational agents” allegedly running the racket, an unspecified number of Indian students have been detained by the Department of Homeland Security in connection with the above case. The American Telugu Association has put the number of students arrested at 100 and says it has confirmation of arrest warrants for 600 students based on conversations with attorneys. The Hindu has not been able to verify the number of people arrested. It has reached out to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and is awaiting a response to confirm the numbers.

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At least 25 of those enrolled at Farmington have been confirmed as arrested, Rahul Reddy, a Houston-based lawyer at an immigration law firm, Reddy & Neumann, told The Hindu. Mr. Reddy had spoken to some of those detained or to their roommates or close relatives.

The indictments unsealed on Wednesday said the eight individuals at the centre of the racket were “a group of foreign citizens”. It is highly likely that all eight are Indian citizens based on their names, their characterisation in the charge-sheet and discussions with sources.

The fraud is based on a sting operation involving Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents who had posed as owners and employees of the University of Farmington in Farmington Hills, Michigan, approximately between June 2017 and January 2019.

Students would pay to enrol in the University, giving the appearance that they were in approved educational programs and making normal progress towards getting a degree. However, the University had no faculty nor any classes, the indictment says, and the students were aware of this. The “pay to stay” scheme allowed them to maintain their student visa (F-1) status and obtain work permits as part of the Curricular Practical Training (CPT) option open to qualified F-1 visa students.

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One of the eight defendants, an Aswanth ( aka Ashwanth) Nune, is alleged to have made in excess of $25,000 via this scheme , and assisted at least 18 other foreign citizens, as per the charge-sheet reviewed by The Hindu. Mr. Nune, the charges go, enlisted foreign citizens at the university in return for cash, kickbacks, “scholarships” and course credit. Mr. Nune also allegedly helped foreign citizens maintain their student visa status and obtain employment authorisation in the U.S.

The other seven individuals arrested are Barath Kakireddy, 29, of Lake Mary, FL, Suresh Kandala, 31, of Culpeper, Virginina, Phanideep Karnati, 35, of Louisville, Kentucky, Prem Rampeesa, 26, of Charlotte, North Carolina, Santosh Sama, 28, of Fremont, California, Avinash Thakkallapally, 28, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Aswanth Nune, 26, of Atlanta, Georgia and Naveen Prathipati, 26, of Dallas, Texas. If convicted, they could be jailed for up to five years.

“We are all aware that international students can be a valuable asset to our country, but as this case shows, the well-intended international student visa programme can also be exploited and abused, “Mr. Schneider said in a statement.

About 600 facilitated for illegal stay

The defendants helped at least 600 foreign citizens as per one of the indictments, The Detroit Free Press reported. This means the number of “students” who will eventually be detained could run into the hundreds, and it is likely the majority of them are Indian citizens. At least 36 arrests of individuals posing as students were confirmed, diplomatic source told The Hindu.

The Indian Embassy in Washington and Indian Consulates across the country have been in touch with Indian community and Indian student associations in the U.S. as well as U.S. authorities to provide those detained with consular assistance, the Indian Embassy told The Hindu.

One of the “students” arrested, Babu (full name withheld on request) was taken away at dawn by DHS agents who knocked on his door at about 6.00 AM on Wednesday, Karthik (full name withheld upon request) , an engineer who shares a flat with Babu and a third female house-mate told The Hindu. The Hindu was able to verify Karthik’s identity based on work information he provided.

The agents asked Babu where he was studying, what he was studying and whether he was taking online classes. Babu answered the last question in the affirmative but could not name any professors.

Babu spoke with Karthik in the afternoon on Wednesday and asked Karthik to contact a non-profit that could help him get an attorney. The number of the non-profit was provided to Babu by the authorities. Babu , who sounded scared and “pretty low” according to Karthik, could not identify where he had been detained. Karthik has also been in touch with the Indian Embassy in Washington, he said to The Hindu.

The University of Farmington has a website with details of its history, admissions and fees – which appear noticeably low. Graduate tuition per quarter is an estimated $2,500 or $10,000 per year compared to some $36,000 per year tuition at Michigan State for those who cannot claim state resident fees.

The defendants intended to help shield and hide their customers/ students from United States immigration authorities for money and collectively profited in excess of a quarter of a million dollars as a result of their scheme, the ICE said.

“We are all aware that international students can be a valuable asset to our country, but as this case shows, the well-intended international student visa programme can also be exploited and abused, stated US Attorney Matthew Schneider.

According to the indictment, the university was being used by foreign citizens as a ‘pay to stay’ scheme which allowed these individuals to stay in the United States as full-time students in an “approved” educational programme.

Each of the foreign citizen who enrolled and made tuition payments to the university knew that they would not attend accrual classes, earn credits or make progress towards an actual degree in a particular field of study — a pay to stay scheme, the indictment said.

“Rather their intent was to fraudulently maintain their student visa status and to obtain work authorisation under the CPT programme, the indictment said, claiming that each student knew that the university programme was not approved by the Department of Homeland Security, was illegal and that discretion should be used when discussing the programme with others.

It is the second such case when Department of Homeland Security has used a fake university to unearth a fake student visa racket.

In 2016, ICE had arrested some 21 people for similar charges for a fake University of Northern New Jersey.

(With inputs from Suhasini Haidar)

Our Hyderabad correspondent R. Ravikanth Reddy adds:

ATA reaches out to students for counselling

The American Telugu Association (ATA) president, Parmesh Bheemreddy told The Hindu that affected students called up the ATA for guidance and help and the local ATA teams have reached out to Indian students Associations of various universities for counselling. The legal teams of ATA are also speaking to the affected students for legal help and counselling as they have been issued arrest warrants.

The ATA also met the Indian Ambassador Harshvardhan Shingla and the Indian Consulate General Swati Vijay Kulkarni in Atlanta to brief them and sought assistance for remediation efforts, Mr. Bheemreddy said.

According to Mr. Bheemreddy, this is not the first such incident and several foreign students including Indian students were arrested and deported in similar operations in Tri Valley University and Herguan University in California in 2011 and 2012. Some of them were given an option to change the University for continuing their education at that time. However, in this episode students may not get that opportunity as they willingly joined the fake university just to maintain their student status.

Mr. Bheemreddy said the ATA is conducting an Immigration seminar on January 31 with Immigration attorneys Ravi Mannam, Michael Sofo and Hemant Ramachandran and they will guide students how to avoid fake recruiters who promise illegal ways to stay in the USA through admissions in unaccredited colleges and universities. The attorneys will also discuss what constitutes violation of immigration laws and the right approach to be a legal immigrant.