Bay Area tech staffing firm owner sentenced for visa fraud

SAN JOSE The head of a San Jose-based tech staffing firm was sentenced Monday to one year and two months in federal prison for visa fraud prosecutors commented Related Articles San Jose man arrested in connection with two road-rage incidents Stanford grad sent to prison for running meth cocaine ring that offered puppy time Morgan Hill police shoot man after apparent disturbance at Safeway Saratoga mail theft leads to identity theft SJFD captain arrested on suspicion of stealing fire station drugs Kishore Dattapuram of Santa Clara was indicted in February on one count of conspiracy to commit visa fraud and counts of substantive visa fraud according to the U S Attorney s Office Dattapuram pleaded guilty to all counts in November Dattapuram co-owned and operated Nanosemantics Inc a staffing firm that provided skilled employees to system companies in the Bay Area prosecutors disclosed Nanosemantics which received a commission for employees placed at client companies regularly submitted H -B applications so that foreign workers could obtain temporary authorization to live and work for employers in the United States Prosecutors noted Dattapuram worked with two co-defendants to file H -B applications that falsely claimed foreign workers had specific jobs waiting for them at designated companies On multiple occasions Dattapuram paid companies to be listed as end clients for the foreign workers even though he knew they would never work for those companies Dattapuram and his co-defendants admitted the goal of the scheme was to allow Nanosemantics to obtain visas for job candidates before securing jobs for them This allowed the firm to place workers with employers as soon as jobs were available rather than wait for the visa application process to conclude prosecutors noted The firm as a aftermath had an unfair advantage over its competitors prosecutors stated In addition to the -month prison term a judge ordered Dattapuram to serve three years of supervised release forfeit and pay a fine of prosecutors declared