An Indian-American man from the Middlesex County in New Jersey was recently arrested upon alleged charges of VISA and Naturalization Fraud. The man is claimed to have submitted around 11 fraudulent H-1B VISA applications along with forging his own citizenship under the administration of the United States of America. The statistics were stated by U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito.
43 year old Neeraj Kumar Sharma, a resident from Piscataway, New Jersey has been charged with simultaneous counts of one Visa fraud and one naturalization fraud. The accused was scheduled to make his initial appearance on the afternoon of February 05, 2019 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael A. Hammer in Newark federal court.
Sharma has been accused of hiring foreign workers with diligent IT expertise who showcased their desire of working in the United States. Once confirmed, Sharma got the details for the H-1B Visa paperworks of the potential staffers and presented them in front of the U.S Citizenship and Immigrations Services. He falsely portrayed the applications stating that the potential foreign employees have full time potential jobs at a national bank which is a needed prerequisite when it comes to securing jobs there.
In reality, it has been further traced that Sharma never actually ended up securing any kind of jobs for the applicants and instead submitted phony letters to the bank’s letterhead with forged signatures of the bank officials and executives.
With all the charges pressing up, it is believed that the government has the capability of charging an imprisonment of 10 years along with a hefty $250,000 as fine amount, if charged guilty.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan L. O’Neill of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Public Protection Unit in Newark is the one who is handling the case on behalf of the government. The released press release from the United States Department of Justice has also stated saying that these are mere accusations right now and the defendant is assumed innocent until proven guilty.
-Somapika Dutta
