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Indian American pleads guilty to Visa fraud and conspiracy
Kishore Dattapuram, 55, admitted to submitting fraudulent H-1B visa applications for his company Nanosemantics Inc.,along with co-defendants Kumar Aswapathi, 55, of Austin, Texas, and Santosh Giri, 48, of San Jose.
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Representative Image / Image- Pixabay
An Indian American owner of a San Jose-based technology staffing firm, has pleaded guilty to charges of visa fraud and conspiracy to commit visa fraud.
Kishore Dattapuram, 55, admitted to submitting fraudulent H-1B visa applications for his company Nanosemantics Inc.,along with co-defendants Kumar Aswapathi, 55, of Austin, Texas, and Santosh Giri, 48, of San Jose.
Nanosemantics Inc., owned by Dattapuram and Aswapathi, supplied technology companies in the Bay Area with skilled foreign workers. To facilitate this, the firm regularly submitted H-1B petitions, which grant temporary authorization for foreign employees to work in the U.S.
However, according to court documents, the defendants falsely claimed that specific jobs existed at end-client companies for these foreign workers when, in reality, the jobs did not exist.
Dattapuram admitted in court to paying companies to act as end-client employers for visa applications, knowing that these companies would not actually employ the workers. This practice enabled Nanosemantics to secure visas before securing actual jobs, providing the firm with an advantage over competitors. The goal, as Dattapuram acknowledged, was to have visa-ready employees available for immediate placement when job opportunities arose.
The defendants were initially charged in a Feb 2019 indictment that alleged conspiracy to commit visa fraud and multiple counts of substantive visa fraud. Aswapathi pleaded guilty to all charges in 2020, and Giri entered his guilty plea on October 28, 2024.
The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) with assistance from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). “This case underscores the commitment of federal agencies to uphold the integrity of the H-1B visa program,” said HSI Special Agent in Charge Tatum King.
Dattapuram and Giri are scheduled to be sentenced on February 24, 2025, before the U.S. District Judge Edward J. Davila, with Aswapathi’s sentencing status hearing set for November 25, 2024. Each count of visa fraud carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a US$ 250,000 fine, while the conspiracy charge has a maximum sentence of five years and an additional fine of US$ 250,000.
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