Indian-origin founders of this US-based IT company charged in H-1B visa fraud

Kishore Dattapuram pleaded guilty in federal court this week to H-1B visa fraud and conspiracy to commit visa fraud. According to a press release US Attorney's Office, Northern District of California, Dattapuram, 55, of Santa Clara, and two other defendants, Kumar Aswapathi , 55, of Austin, Tex., and Santosh Giri , 48, of San Jose, were each charged in an indictment filed February 28, 2019, with one count of conspiracy to commit H-1B visa fraud and 10 counts of substantive visa fraud. Aswapathi pleaded guilty to all counts on October 19, 2020. Giri pleaded guilty to all counts on October 28, 2024.

Name of the US-based IT company charged
Dattapuram and Aswapathi owned and operated Nanosemantics Inc , a staffing company headquartered in San Jose that provided skilled employees to technology companies in the Bay Area. Under its agreements with the companies and the employees it placed, Nanosemantics received a commission for workers placed at client companies. Giri worked closely with Nanosemantics and was also the owner of a separate business, LexGiri, a legal process outsourcing firm that served as a “remote-virtual corporate immigration specialist” for companies.

In connection with its staffing work, Nanosemantics regularly submitted H-1B petitions for foreign workers.

How the H-1B visa fraud happened
In pleading guilty, Dattapuram admitted to working with Aswapathi and Giri to submit fraudulent H-1B applications that falsely represented that foreign workers had specific jobs waiting for them at designated end-client companies when in fact the jobs did not exist. On multiple occasions, Dattapuram paid companies to be listed as end-clients for the foreign workers, even though he knew the workers would never work for those employers. As defendants admitted, the goal of the scheme was to allow Nanosemantics to obtain visas for job candidates before securing jobs for them, thereby allowing Nanosemantics to place those workers with employers as soon as those jobs were available, rather than waiting for the visa application process to conclude, and giving Nanosemantics an unfair advantage over its competitors.

Timeline of the sentencing
Dattapuram’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for February 24, 2025. Giri’s sentencing hearing is also scheduled for the same day. Aswapathi has a status regarding sentencing on November 25, 2024. Each defendant faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 for each visa fraud count, and a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 on the conspiracy count.

What is H-1B visa programme
The H-1B visa programme allows foreign workers to obtain temporary authorization to live and work for companies in the United States. In order to secure an H-1B visa, an employer or other sponsor must submit a Form I-129 petition to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). A petition and associated documentation must confirm the existence and duration of the job waiting for the worker, and describe key details including the wages associated with the position.