Ten people of Indian origin are likely to be among 21 people arrested as part of a sting operation in which a fake university was created by U.S. authorities to expose a visa scam that allowed more than 1,000 foreigners to maintain student and work visas.
In a nationwide sweep, federal authorities arrested 21 people in New York, New Jersey, Washington and Virginia. “These defendants arranged to obtain visas by having individuals enrol in a fake university. Unfortunately for them, that fake university was run by undercover agents of the Department of Homeland Security”, Paul J. Fishman, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, told reporters.
The arrested people were brokers, recruiters and employers who unlawfully and fraudulently obtained or attempted to obtain student visas and foreign worker visas for approximately 1,000 foreign nationals from 26 countries.
It is learnt that a large number of students who received necessary visa and permits to work in the U.S. as a result of the sting operation for which they reportedly paid huge sums of money are from India.
They were arrested for their involvement in an alleged scheme to enrol foreign nationals as students in the University of Northern New Jersey, a purported for-profit college located in Cranford, New Jersey (UNNJ). Unbeknownst to the defendants and the foreign nationals they conspired with, the UNNJ was created in September 2013 by special agents of Homeland Security Investigations.
