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September 4, 2015San Jose, CA, United StatesDocument and Benefit Fraud

4 Bay Area residents charged in wide-ranging visa fraud and money laundering scheme

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Four Bay Area residents are under indictment, along with seven business entities they owned, in connection with a visa and mail fraud conspiracy uncovered in a probe involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and several other federal agencies.

Ragini Vecham, 36, of Cupertino; Kishore Pallapothu, 42, of Cupertino; Satyanarayana Tota, 45, of Sunnyvale; and Ramana Reddy, 44, of Sunnyvale, were indicted Wednesday and turned themselves in to the U.S. Marshals Service the following day. The three are accused of orchestrating a complex conspiracy that used companies to submit fraudulent H-1B visa applications and other documents to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). USCIS’ Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate alerted HSI through the multiagency Document and Benefit Fraud Taskforce about the scheme. The resulting charges stem from a joint investigation conducted by HSI, the U.S. Department of Labor, and the U.S. State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service.

According to the indictment, since 2006, Vecham and Pallapothu posed as staffing specialists for technology firms based in Santa Clara County. The companies charged in the indictment include Horizon Technologies, Inc., Softnet Technology Solutions, Inc., Rose Hayward LLC, Sage 20 Hayward LLC, Jasmine 20 Hayward LLC, Tulip 26 Hayward LLC, and Lily 20 Hayward LLC. 

It is alleged Vecham and Pallapothu, along with Tota, submitted fraudulent documents to USCIS and DOL in connection with applications for H-1B visas. The indictment further accuses Vecham and Pallapothu of creating numerous companies to buy real estate and launder the proceeds generated by the visa fraud scheme. Additionally, Vecham and Pallapothu are charged with fraudulently obtaining loans to finance several of those real estate purchases. The government is seeking to forfeit more than $18 million worth of property tied to the fraud scheme, including several apartment buildings in Hayward and San Lorenzo. 

“Immigration benefit fraud is a serious crime,” said Tatum King, acting special agent in charge for HSI San Francisco. “Not only do schemes like this potentially rob deserving immigrants of benefits they rightfully deserve, they also create a security vulnerability that could be exploited by criminals and others who pose a danger to our community. As this case makes clear, HSI will aggressively target those who conspire to corrupt the integrity of America’s legal immigration system and put our nation’s security at risk in the process.”

Vecham and Pallapothu are charged with 13 counts of visa fraud; 13 counts of mail fraud; five counts of loan fraud, one count of wire fraud; and two counts of money laundering. Additionally, Pallapothu and Tota are charged with one count each of obstruction of justice. Pallapothu is also charged with two counts of witness tampering.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Lucey is prosecuting the case with the assistance of Laurie Worthen and Yolanda Singletary.

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