H-1B FRAUD RING BUSTED IN CALIFORNIA
Sampath Rajidi and Sreedhar Mada, both 51, of Dublin, CA, just pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit visa fraud.
Rajidi ran two IT staffing firms (S-Team Software, Uptrend Technologies). Mada was the Chief Information Officer at UC Agriculture & Natural Resources in Davis.
Here’s the scheme:
They filed H-1B petitions claiming foreign workers would staff “University of California” projects. Mada used his UC title to make it look legit.
The jobs didn’t exist.
Once the visas were approved, they quietly marketed those workers to OTHER employers, having already secured the H-1B slots on false pretenses.
Both face up to 5 years $250K fines. Sentencing is July 30.
The program isn’t broken by accident. It gets gamed on purpose.