Indian American businessman in New Hampshire charged with H1-B visa fraud

- ADVERTISEMENT -

NEW YORK – An Indian American businessman Rohit Saksena, 42, of New Hampshire will pay a fine of $40,000 for filing false visa applications under the H1-B visa program.

According to acting U.S. Attorney John J. Farley, Saksena runs a staffing company under the name of Saks IT Group LLC, which has contracts with other companies who are willing to hire foreign workers.

Court documents state that Saksena filed 45 fraudulent visa applications with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services between March 2014 and December 2015, claiming that Saks IT Group was hiring foreign workers for a specific company in Cupertino, California.

However, there was no evidence that Saks IT Group had any contract with the company in California nor was the company even hiring workers. Instead Saksena was putting these workers to work in other companies.

“It’s a serious crime, because, you want to protect the integrity of these programs. Ultimately, they depend on people being honest,” Mark Zuckerman, who prosecuted the case, told New Hampshire Public Radio.

“It’s a very important program. A lot of industries, frankly, rely on it. And when it gets subverted like this, it makes it that much more difficult to administer,” he added.

Although the foreign workers and the company in California were not defrauded, many of the fraudulent visa applications were denied after the incident.

Along with paying the $40,000 fine, Saksena will serve three years probation.