PerfectVIPs Executives Patnaik and Parekh Charged with H-1B Visa Fraud
February 11, 2022 - Bay area Indian IT company PerfectVIPs' CEO Namrata Patnaik (42) and HR Manager Kartiki Parekh (56) are charged with fraud in obtaining “Specialty Occupation” visas and one million dollar money laundering today in San Jose federal court.
Headquartered in San Jose, CA, PerfectVIPs was incorporated in 2010 as a computer chip design product and services company.
According to the indictment filed in San Jose federal court:
.....from 2011 through April 2017 Patnaik and Parekh submitted approximately 85 fraudulent H-1B visa applications for temporary nonimmigrant workers sponsored by PerfectVIPs. Each application contained representations under penalty of perjury. During the process, Patnaik and Parekh submitted or caused to be submitted statements that the foreign workers would be employed by PerfectVIPs to work on PerfectVIPs’s in-house contracts and projects at PerfectVIPs’s office locations. Once the applications were approved, Patnaik and Parekh instead created a pool of H-1B workers that were placed at employment positions with other employers, not with PerfectVIPs. This practice provided PerfectVIPs an unfair and illegal advantage over employment-staffing firms. During the period of Patnaik’s and Parekh’s conspiracy, ....the other employers paid fees of nearly $7 million to PerfectVIPs to cover the cost of the H-1B workers’ wages and salaries as well as a profit markup for PerfectVIPs.
Charges
The charges against Patnaik and Parekh include:- One count of conspiracy to commit visa fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371
- Two counts of visa fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1546(a)
Potential Penalty
On one count of conspiracy to commit visa fraud, Patnaik and Parekh face a maximum statutory imprisonment sentence of 5 years in prison.And, the two counts of visa fraud and one count of money laundering carry a maximum statutory imprisonment of 10 years for each violation.
Besides the potential imprisonment, the charges carry a maximum statutory fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss amount or, for money laundering, twice the amount of the criminally derived property involved.
The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.
The defendants Namrata Patnaik and Kartiki Parekh were ordered to appear in United States District Court in San Jose on April 12 at 9AM.
The charges contained in the criminal indictment against PerfectVIPs' CEO Namrata Patnaik and HR Manager Kartiki Parekh are only allegations and they must be presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.