21 arrested by ICE on charges of conspiracy to commit visa fraud on pay-to-stay college for students mostly from China and India.

The defendants allegedly conspired with more than 1,000 foreign nationals to fraudulently obtain student and foreign worker visas through a “pay to stay” New Jersey college: The  University of Northern New Jersey (UNNJ) – The UNNJ was created in September 2013 by HSI federal agents.

Posted by CotoBlogzz

Rancho Santa Margarita, CA - Twenty-one brokers, recruiters and employers from across the United States were arrested in New York, Washington, New Jersey and Virginia by special agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and charged in 14 complaints with conspiracy to commit visa fraud, conspiracy to harbor aliens for profit and other offenses, according to announcement by U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman for the District of New Jersey.

All the defendants, with the exception of Yanjun Lin aka Aimee Lin, 25, of Flushing, New York, will appear today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Steven C. Mannion of the District of New Jersey in Newark, New Jersey, federal court.  Lin will appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Karen L. Strombom in the Western District of Washington federal court.

The defendants allegedly conspired with more than 1,000 foreign nationals to fraudulently obtain student and foreign worker visas through a “pay to stay” New Jersey college.

Defendant Name	Age	Residence	Charges
Jun Shen aka Jeanette Shen	32	Levittown, New York	– Conspiracy to commit visa fraud – Conspiracy to harbor aliens for profit
Jiaming Wang aka Celine Wang,	34	Los Angeles, California	– Conspiracy to commit visa fraud – Conspiracy to harbor aliens for profit
Philip Junlin Li	33	Los Angeles, California	– Conspiracy to commit visa fraud – Conspiracy to harbor aliens for profit
Zitong Wen aka Kate Wen	27	Rowland Heights, California	– Conspiracy to commit visa fraud – Conspiracy to harbor aliens for profit
Chaun Kit Yuen aka Alvin Yuen	24	Rowland Heights, California	– Conspiracy to commit visa fraud – Conspiracy to harbor aliens for profit
Ting Zue aka Tiffany Xue	28	Flushing, New York	– Conspiracy to commit visa fraud – Conspiracy to harbor aliens for profit
Yanjun Lin aka Aimee Lin	25	Flushing, New York	– Conspiracy to commit visa fraud – Conspiracy to harbor aliens for profit
Zheng Zhang aka Vicky Zhang	26	New York, New York	– Conspiracy to commit visa fraud – Conspiracy to harbor aliens for profit
Xue Yong Liu aka Jack Liu	29	New York, New York	– Conspiracy to commit visa fraud – Conspiracy to harbor aliens for profit

Minglu Li aka Vivian Lee	36	Los Angeles, California	– Conspiracy to commit visa fraud – Conspiracy to harbor aliens for profit
Jason Li aka Jason Liu aka Fen Lee	43	Flushing, New York	– Conspiracy to commit visa fraud – Conspiracy to harbor aliens for profit
Tajesh Kodali	44	Edison, New Jersey	– Conspiracy to commit visa fraud – Conspiracy to harbor aliens for profit
Jyoti Patel	34	Franklin Park, New Jersey	– Conspiracy to commit visa fraud – Conspiracy to harbor aliens for profit
Shahjadi M. Parvin aka Sarah Patel	54	Hackensack, New Jersey	– Conspiracy to commit visa fraud – Conspiracy to harbor aliens for profit
Narendra Singh Plaha	44	Hillsborough, New Jersey	– Conspiracy to commit visa fraud – Conspiracy to harbor aliens for profit
Sanjeev Sukhija	35	North Brunswick, New Jersey	– Conspiracy to commit visa fraud – Conspiracy to harbor aliens for profit
Harpreet Sachdeva	26	Somerset, New Jersey	– Conspiracy to commit visa fraud – Conspiracy to harbor aliens for profit
Avinash Shankar	35	Bloomington, Illinois	– Conspiracy to commit visa fraud – Conspiracy to harbor aliens for profit
Karthik Nimmala	32	Smyrna, Georgia	– Conspiracy to commit visa fraud – Conspiracy to harbor aliens for profit
Govardhan Dyavarashetty aka Vardhan Shetty	35	Avenel, New Jersey	– H1-B Visa fraud – False statements – Conspiracy to harbor aliens for profit
Syed Qasim Abbas aka Qasim Reza aka Nayyer	41	Brooklyn, New York	– H1-B Visa fraud – False statements – Conspiracy to harbor aliens for profit

According to the complaints unsealed today and statements made in court:           

The defendants, many of whom operated recruiting companies for purported international students, were arrested for their involvement in an alleged scheme to enroll foreign nationals as students in the University of Northern New Jersey, a purported for-profit college located in Cranford, New Jersey (UNNJ).  Unbeknownst to the defendants and the foreign nationals they conspired with, however, the UNNJ was created in September 2013 by HSI federal agents.

Through the UNNJ, undercover HSI agents investigated criminal activities associated with the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP), including, but not limited to, student visa fraud and the harboring of aliens for profit.  The UNNJ was not staffed with instructors or educators, had no curriculum and conducted no actual classes or education activities.  The UNNJ operated solely as a storefront location with small offices staffed by federal agents posing as school administrators.

UNNJ represented itself as a school that, among other things, was authorized to issue a document known as a “Certificate of Eligibility for Nonimmigrant (F-1) Student Status - for Academic and Language Students,” commonly referred to as a Form I-20.  This document, which certifies that a foreign national has been accepted to a school and would be a full-time student, typically enables legitimate foreign students to obtain an F-1 student visa.  The F-1 student visa allows a foreign student to enter and/or remain in the United States while the student makes normal progress toward the completion of a full course of study in an SEVP accredited institution. 

During the investigation, HSI special agents identified hundreds of foreign nationals, primarily from China and India, who previously entered the U.S. on F-1 non-immigrant student visas to attend other SEVP- accredited schools.  Through various recruiting companies and business entities located in New Jersey, California, Illinois, New York and Virginia, the defendants then enabled approximately 1,076 of these foreign individuals – all of whom were willing participants in the scheme – to fraudulently maintain their nonimmigrant status in the U.S. on the false pretense that they continued to participate in full courses of study at the UNNJ. 

Acting as recruiters, the defendants solicited the involvement of UNNJ administrators to participate in the scheme.  During the course of their dealings with undercover agents, the defendants fully acknowledged that none of their foreign national clients would attend any actual courses, earn actual credits, or make academic progress toward an actual degree in a particular field of study.  Rather, the defendants facilitated the enrollment of their foreign national clients in UNNJ to fraudulently maintain student visa status, in exchange for kickbacks, or “commissions.”  The defendants also facilitated the creation of hundreds of false student records, including transcripts, attendance records and diplomas, which were purchased by their foreign national conspirators for the purpose of deceiving immigration authorities. 

In other instances, the defendants used UNNJ to fraudulently obtain work authorization and work visas for hundreds of their clients.  By obtaining this authorization, a number of defendants were able to outsource their foreign national clients as full-time employees with numerous U.S.-based corporations, also in exchange for commission fees.  Other defendants devised phony IT projects that were purportedly to occur at the school.  These defendants then created and caused to be created false contracts, employment verification letters, transcripts and other documents.  The defendants then paid the undercover agents thousands of dollars to put the school’s letterhead on the sham documents, to sign the documents as school administrators and to otherwise go along with the scheme. 

All of these bogus documents created the illusion that prospective foreign workers would be working at the school in some IT capacity or project.  The defendants then used these fictitious documents fraudulently to obtain labor certifications issued by the U.S. Secretary of Labor and then ultimately to petition the U.S. government to obtain H1-B visas for non-immigrants.  These fictitious documents were then submitted to the U.S. Customs and Immigration Services (USCIS).  In the vast majority of circumstances, the foreign worker visas were not issued because USCIS was advised of the ongoing undercover operation.

In addition, starting today, HSI Newark is coordinating with the ICE Counterterrorism and Criminal Exploitation Unit (CTCEU) and the SEVP to terminate the nonimmigrant student status for the foreign nationals associated with UNNJ, and if applicable, administratively arrest and place them into removal proceedings.