The head of two IT staffing companies was sentenced to a year in jail after he was found guilty of falsifying visa applications to secure H-1B guest worker visas for foreign nationals. According to the Justice Department, Anjaneyulu Katam "falsified visa applications, work experience documents, and work contracts, which he then submitted to the U.S. Department of Labor, Department of Homeland Security, and Department of State, in order to secure illegal H-1B visas for Indian nationals."
Katam was also fined $5,000 and was forced to forfeit $1.1 million in assets that he obtained through visa fraud.
The DOJ complaint said that the agency began investigating Katam in 2017 and suspected him of filing fraudulent visa applications on behalf of nine Indian nationals. One individual sponsored by Katam was not actually provided of a job, but was told that he had to find one on his own.
“Katam told him he could work remotely until he could find him an actual contract,” the DOJ complaint said.
For more details on this story, see The Mercury News.
