NEW JERSEY
A federal judge sentenced a man from Edison, New Jersey to two years and six months in prison for falsifying employment certifications for Indian nationals to get them into the United States illegally, officials said today.
U.S. District Court Judge William H. Walls also ordered that Sandipkumar Patel, 42, pay a fine of $50,000, and restitution in the amount of $423,452 to the IRS, officials stated.
In September, Patel pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the United States and subscribing to a false federal income tax return.
According to court documents filed in connection with his plea, from 2001 until 2009, Patel sponsored the visa applications of Indian nationals by falsely claiming that he would provide employment for them in the United States.
Officials said Patel falsely certified on the visa applications that he would employ the migrants in various technical fields at several New Jersey companies, thereby facilitating their illegal entry into the United States.
Over the course of the scheme, migrants paid Patel tens of thousands of dollars for the false certifications.
To disguise the scheme, Patel issued payroll checks and other payroll forms, officials stated.
According to authorities, Patel required the migrants to return the proceeds of the payroll checks to him and to further reimburse him for the payroll tax expenses he incurred. Patel used the fraudulent pay stubs and payroll checks to support false applications to extend the visas, and charged the migrants fees for the visa extensions.
As a result of falsely carrying the migrant employees on his payrolls, Patel overstated his payroll expenses on his federal income tax returns by more than $1.4 million over four years. He underreported his tax obligation by over $400,000 for those years, according to authorities.