U.S.-based Tech staffing firm guilty of visa scam

Regardless of the reason behind boarding a plane, migrating overseas is a lucrative business. With an increasing number of people country-hopping for education and work, there is a corresponding demand for visas for the same.

Many a times, international immigrants fall prey to various scams and frauds dealing with visas.

Recently, in November 2018, an Ohio-based IT staffing company pleaded guilty to university visa fraud case.

Despite being aware of an ongoing H-1B visa fraud at Wright State University, the staffing company in question failed to intimate the authorities about the same.

As per an announcement by the Department of Justice, the company subsequently pleaded guilty – in a U.S. District Court before U.S. District Judge Thomas Rose – about not acting on the information with them.

As per the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District of Ohio, Wright State University entered into many sponsored research contracts with a staffing firm called Web Yoga. These took place between the years of 2010 and 2013.

Under the university visa scam, Wright State University would –

• Hire software engineers
• Get H-1B visas for the employees
• Pay their salaries and benefits in the capacity of employees of the University.

Being an institute of higher learning, Wright State University would often have a cap exemption on the total number of H-1B visas that it could get.

As part of the scam, Wright State University hired 24 foreign members, all through Web Yoga. While it was fraudulently stated by Wright State University that the hired employees would be physically working on the university campus, it was in 2012 that Web Yoga found out that that was far from the truth.

Rather than working on-campus, these employees were found to be working as consultants in many cities, including Orlando, New York City, and Atlanta. All such employees were working on behalf of Web Yoga.

The investigation unearthed the fact that despite knowing that the visas were got through falsehood, Web Yoga nevertheless continued sub-contracting for the H-1B employees.

In keeping with the plea, a recommendation was made that entailed Web Yoga paying up $566,000 as fine.

In November 2018, the Board of Trustees of Wright State University accepted responsibility for the scam, agreeing to pay $1 million to the Federal government for the same.

As per a statement to Dayton Business Journal, Wright State University has stated that since the said investigation, the University had “thoroughly addressed and corrected the issues raised by the H-1B investigation”, planning to “move forward with fulfilling its educational and research mission”.

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If you are looking to Migrate, Work, Visit, Invest or Study in U.S.A., talk to Y-Axis, the World’s No. 1 Immigration & Visa Company.

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