Picture for representational purpose only.

HYDERABAD: Six of the eight Indians arrested for immigration fraud in the US, following the ‘Farmington University’ sting operation by US immigration officials in January this year, have been sentenced to jail for varying periods of 12 to 24 months. The two others will also be sentenced soon, confirmed officials of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

All the eight accused are from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh .

While Santosh Sama from Fremont has been jailed for two years, Barath Kakireddy (29) of Lake Mary and Suresh Kandala (31) of Culpeper have been awarded 18 months in prison. The three others sentenced are Avinash Thakkallapally, 28, of Harrisburg (15 months); Aswanth Nune, 26, of Atlanta (12 months); and Naveen Prathipati, 26, of Dallas (12 months).

“All eight defendants have pleaded guilty. The final defendant is expected to be sentenced in January,” wrote Khaalid Walls, northeast regional communications director/spokesman, ICE in an e-mail interaction with TOI. According to him, seventh accused Prem Rampeesa (26) of Charlotte’s scheduled sentencing is on November 19 and Phanideep Karnati, 35, of Louisville, will be sentenced in January 2020.

“They (the eight defendants) will be deported (to India) following their prison term,” Walls said.

Earlier this year, as many as 145 Indian students who had enrolled with the US-government run fake University of Farmington were detained and deported for failing to “maintain non-immigrant status” as they were not enrolled “in a full course of study”. ICE officials had alleged that many of them also “participated in unauthorised curricular practical training (CPT)”.

Accusing the eight Indian recruiters of “fraudulently facilitating” this from approximately Feb 2017 through Jan 2019, and allowing “foreign nationals in illegally remaining and working in the United States”, authorities said that they helped the students to obtain immigration documents from the school and “facilitated the creation of false student records, including transcripts, for the purpose of deceiving immigration authorities”.

“All participants in the scheme knew that the school had no instructors or actual classes… 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 US Attorney’s Office reported.

