U visa fraud ran on fake holdups and payments as high as $30,000

By Fox News | New York Post

A “ringleader” has been sentenced, and several other suspects have been charged in Illinois in connection with a widespread conspiracy to defraud the federal immigration system by helping noncitizens seek visa protections reserved for crime victims who assist law enforcement.

Parth Nayi of Illinois was sentenced Thursday to two years in federal prison for participating in hundreds of staged armed robberies at small businesses and eateries in and around Chicago and helping “coach” the supposed ” victims” through plans to apply for U visas in exchange for cash.

“[Nayi] was the main organizer and at the center of almost every single one of the hundreds of staged robberies that were perpetrated. [The] defendant significantly corrupted the federal U-Visa program, designed to provide a benefit to a particularly vulnerable group—foreign nationals who are victims of serious crimes while visiting the United States,” Assistant US Attorney Saqib Mohammad Hussain wrote in the case’s sentencing memo.

Thousands of people posing as crime victims paid Nayi to participate in the scheme, prosecutors said.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT NEW YORK POST