A covertly taped meeting shows an Auckland couple handing over $5000 in cash in a bank bag and receiving the paperwork they need to apply for a work visa in return.

It could be the most blatant cash-for-visas scam yet - a covertly taped meeting showing an Auckland couple handing over $5000 in cash in a bank bag and receiving the paperwork they need to apply for a work visa in return.

The couple, who are afraid to be named, secretly recorded their meeting with restaurateurs Janesh Kharbanda and Bhawna Kapila Bhatia.

They say they paid the money in return for a job and - more importantly - to secure Kharbanda and Bhatia's support for their application for New Zealand residency.

The video records them agreeing to pay a total of $20,000 and to paying part of the tax attached to the job, with Kharbanda, a prominent Indian businessman feted for his charity work and who has links to National and Labour Party figures, promising: "I will fix it."

He denies any wrongdoing, claiming the payments were to buy a franchise of his Indian restaurant business.

Stuff's The Big Scam has exposed a string of immigration scams where desperate migrants pay for fake jobs or jobs where they are forced to return most of their wages to employers.

This is the most flagrant example yet: the cash-for-work exchange caught on camera at Kharbanda's former home in Pokeno. The couple hand over $5000 and in return get a signed employment contract for the wife to work as an assistant manager at one of Kharbanda's two Indian restaurants in Waikato.

In the video (which Stuff had professionally translated from Punjabi), Kharbanda says he will pay minimum wages, and tax on 32 hours' work but the wife must pay tax on eight hours.

KHARBANDA: "Don't worry I will fix everything, including essential visa for your husband as well."

HUSBAND: "You will pay us in the bank account according to the rules, and we will pay you money back as per our internal arrangement. We will cooperate with you, sir!"

The husband says he will pay $5000 cash there, then $10,000 cash once the wife's visa is approved, then another $5000 for a three-year work visa.

HUSBAND: "So $20,000 will be in your pocket by then, and you were asking $30,000 in total."

BHATIA: "Yup, it is the matter of mutual understanding, you are in need to settle here and we need to progress in our business. So let's do it. Meanwhile, all of us will work hard."

The wife says they will have no more money after that to spare.

WIFE: "Please don't break our trust."

KHARBANDA: "We have a reputation in the society, your permanent residency in your hands anyway."

DAVID WHITE/STUFF Janesh Kharbanda says aware of the spate of stories about employers breaking the law - but is adamant he's not one of those cases.

The assistant manager title would meet an Immigration NZ threshold to allow the wife to vary her work visa and, eventually, apply for NZ residency.

But she says she withdrew her application to INZ after she discovered that Kharbanda's Dhaba on Highway restaurant, at the Mercer rest stop on State Highway 1, had been closed the entire time she was awaiting her visa to work there.

She asked for a refund, but Kharbanda initially refused, then pleaded he had no money.

"When I knew it [was closed] it changed my mind, I thought it was wrong for me and in future I could get in trouble, so I decided to withdraw my file," the wife says. "They say you withdraw your file, so it is not our fault."

Another woman, Anishka (not her real name), says she also applied for a job at Dhaba on Highway. She had an essential skills visa as a chef, and worked at a takeaway, but wanted to move to a restaurant to qualify for residency.

She says Kharbanda offered her a job, but said he expected her to return her salary to him and retain only $300 a week. Anishka says she witnessed another employee being paid $300 in cash for a week's work and tried to persuade her to quit.

Anishka refused the deal, and withdrew her application to vary her work visa. She says the whole experience cost her about $1000. "I wasn't happy [that he] wasn't paying other girls' tax and wages properly. I didn't want to work somewhere where the rules were not being followed properly."

Both women say Kharbanda asked them to work cash-in-hand while they waited for their visas to be approved.

Kharbanda denies this. He also denies asking Anishka to repay her salary, saying she invented the story because she is a friend of the wife. Asked about the exchange where the husband lays out the deal, Kharbanda says: "I have no clue what she said." Of the tax claim, he says that's because he would only pay the hours stipulated in the contract, and if the wife wanted to work more, "that's your choice".

DILEEPA FONSEKA/STUFF The now-closed Dhaba on Highway branch at Mercer.

'I'VE DONE NOTHING WRONG'

Approached at his Hamilton restaurant, Kharbanda is adamant he's done nothing wrong. "I've never done anything illegal. Everything is fair. This is just an opportunity." He's aware of the spate of stories about employers breaking the law, but he says this isn't one of those cases. "The concept in people's mind is employers are wrong, it's not always employers are wrong".

Despite there being no mention of the word 'franchise' in the recording, Kharbanda insists the discussion was about a franchising deal where the couple would pay $25,000 for the Mercer business, then hand Kharbanda 10 per cent of profits. Kharbanda says it was to be his first franchise deal but he wants to expand his business, which he calls the "first Indian concept restaurant in New Zealand".

Kharbanda says he has already reported the woman to Immigration; however, he wouldn't provide Stuff with a privacy waiver to discuss this claim with Immigration. He says he has "written proof" the woman paid for a franchise, then backed out of the deal, and demanded $50,000 in compensation. A text message from the wife to Bhatia, translated from Punjabi, reads in part: "If you play around with me then both of you will end up paying $50,000 instead of $5000. i have proof of everything, tell him not to be over smart. he told me that he is going to complaint about me but remember that i can get your business shut and i mean it."

The wife says she meant she would complain to authorities and Kharbanda would be fined.

ALDEN WILLIAMS/STUFF Ravinder Singh is trying to get the couple's money returned.

GETTING THE MONEY BACK

While he's at first friendly, offering Stuff reporters food, Kharbanda later serves us with a trespass notice, and in an email, threatens he "can post on social media that you blackmail people to take money from innocent people".

He said he would be able to repay the couple in "mid-November" after selling property in India; later he emails to say he will repay them at $100 a week. In a further email, he says he's paid an initial instalment (of $500) and says "we have start paying them so all matters end here".

To get any money back has taken time. First the husband asked. Again, Kharbanda said it was a franchise fee. Then he said he would repay it, writing: "Will return soon. Arranging. Have patience." Then he asked him to stop messaging, saying he would repay him soon, but "if you can't wait I can't do much".

Then a friend of the couple - India-born New Zealand citizen Ravinder Singh - tried. "I already reported this to immigration and I have explained them full story," Kharbanda wrote, again claiming it had been a franchise fee. "So stop all this nonsense. I never refused to return money, I said them will return soon."

Bizarrely, he claims Work and Income would help with the refund, then after a few messages, refuses to correspond further, writing: "Now I feel stressed with these texts ..."

Ravinder encouraged the couple to speak out and share their story.

"My intention is to save ... people from my community. "I don't want people here asking for bribes," he said.

"So many Indians [being exploited] don't want to tell their story because they're scared. Some of them are overstayers, some are suffering. [I can help] because I am a citizen."

Ravinder says the talk of franchises is "bulls...". His friends are on work visas, so couldn't buy a franchise, there is no franchise agreement, and no existing Dhaba on Highway franchises.

The wife also denies that claim. Stuff has a copy of her signed employment contract, dated May 24 2018, for a job as assistant manager. Her ANZ bank statements show a cash withdrawal of $5000 on the same date. "He offered me a job as assistant manager; no mention of a franchise at all," says the wife.

Kharbanda says his "only mistake" was having the wife sign an employment contract, not a franchise agreement. He says he showed her the agreement on his laptop, but his printer was broken, and she wouldn't meet again to sign it. He later forwards us an unsigned, franchise contract markedly similar to a generic contract found online.

Facebook Kharbanda with John Key - but his political connections say they are "shocked" at the allegations.

'I DON'T WANT TO BE PART OF THIS'

According to his Facebook profile, Kharbanda claims to have worked as a key account manager at infant formula exporter Fernbaby, area manager at chicken franchise Oporto, have studied for an MBA, and studied business management at Lincoln University. He's also the sole director and shareholder of a company called LifeCorp, which appears to sell cleaning services and insurance.

A testimonial on its website, says Kharbanda is "a man who has exceptionally and easily won my repect [sic] and admiration! A man of integrity and honesty. A man who can empathise and has a soft heart. A man who do what he said he would do."

Kharbanda is also a trustee - alongside Labour's Botany parliamentary candidate Tofik Mamedov - of the Life's International Charitable Trust, whose objectives include "providing guidance" to immigrants and "to promote health and hygiene awareness of all persons".

In 2015, the trust organised a 'senior best chef' competition for migrants aged over 55, with a judging panel including Auckland Mayor Phil Goff and National MP Paramjeet Parmar.

Mamedov said he was "shocked, surprised, and angry" at the allegations and would resign from the trust. He said he had no knowledge of it. "This is is a serious allegation and I don't want to be part of this; I don't want to part of this trust that he's in."

A Facebook photo shows Kharbanda with former prime minister John Key, while former Labour candidate and Crime Prevention Group founder Sunny Kaushal wrote on Kharbanda's Facebook page: "Thank you Janesh bhai, truly admire your spirit and the great work you do for others. Keep it up and stay blessed."

Kaushal told Stuff he found the allegations "shocking", and he had "no sympathy" for Kharbanda. "There's no excuse … anybody exploiting immigrants should be accountable for their wrongdoing."

Told of Kharbanda's claims the exchange was a cash payment for a franchise arrangement Kaushal said: "Obviously if there's any such business association there needs to be a signed agreement, that's very clear".

Kaushal said he hadn't seen Kharbanda face-to-face in "a long long time".

SUPPLIED Former Labour candidate Tofik Mamedov was shocked.

​Kharbanda's Mercer restaurant is shut but his second branch in Fairfield, Hamilton, remains open. However, the company, of which Kharbanda is sole director and shareholder, is overdue filing its annual return and a note on the Companies Office website warns if the return isn't filed immediately, it may be struck off.

Revelations about the seemingly brazen exchange comes less than a week after immigration adviser Malkiat Singh said he was so disillusioned at Immigration New Zealand's ability to crack down on cash-for-visa scams he would no longer be encouraging clients to report them, saying the system was "nurturing scammers".

In a statement, Immigration New Zealand manager Jock Gilray said the department was aware of "visa-for-cash scams". Gilray has seen the video, but due to privacy reasons couldn't comment on those involved. But he warned: "We strongly urge migrants not to enter into such deceptive arrangements, they are not legal and most often result in poor outcomes for the migrant and their families.

"Labour exploitation and 'visas-for-cash' schemes are not welcome in New Zealand, and it is not acceptable that people are participating in this sort of behaviour. We encourage anyone with information of these types of scams to bring it forward to INZ or the Labour Inspectorate."