Someone needs to go to jail for this
A “ringleader” has been sentenced and several other suspects charged in Illinois in connection with a widespread conspiracy to defraud the federal immigration system by helping noncitizens seek visa protections reserved for crime victims who assist law enforcement.
Parth Nayi of Illinois was sentenced Thursday to two years in federal prison for participating in hundreds of staged armed robberies at small businesses and eateries in and around Chicago and helping “coach” the supposed ” victims” through plans to apply for U visas in exchange for cash.
“[Nayi] was the main organizer and at the center of almost every single one of the hundreds of staged robberies that were perpetrated. [The] defendant significantly corrupted the federal U-Visa program, designed to provide a benefit to a particularly vulnerable group—foreign nationals who are victims of serious crimes while visiting the United States,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Saqib Mohammad Hussain wrote in the case’s sentencing memo.
Thousands of people posing as crime victims paid Nayi to participate in the scheme, prosecutors said.
They were paying $5K to $30K “so that they could later apply for Nonimmigrant U-Visas, which are set aside for foreign nationals who are victims of certain crimes and are helpful to law enforcement in the investigation.”
Alleged co-conspirators Bhikhabhai Patel, Nilesh Patel, Ravinaben Patel and Rajnikumar Patel reached out to Nayi to pose as victims of the staged robberies so they could apply for U visas, which were created under a 2000 law meant to protect trafficking victims and “battered immigrant women.”
Is Nayi even a US citizen? Looks like this is mostly going through the Indian culture.
“Defendant was the main organizer and at the center of almost every single one of the hundreds of staged robberies that were perpetrated,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Saqib Mohammad Hussain argued in the government’s sentencing memorandum. “Defendant significantly corrupted the federal U Visa program, designed to provide a benefit to a particularly vulnerable group—foreign nationals who are victims of serious crimes while visiting the United States.”
Maybe that is something we shouldn’t have. Why are we giving away legal status because some was a victim of a crime here? Maybe there are too many workarounds.
