Federal agents used a fake university in
Farmington Hills to lure alleged phony foreign students who were trying
to stay in the United States illegally.
The University of Farmington
had no staff, no instructors, no curriculum and no classes but was
utilized by undercover Homeland Security agents to identify people
involved in immigration fraud, according to federal grand
jury indictments unsealed Wednesday Jan 30 2018.
Eight student
recruiters were charged with participating in a conspiracy to help at
least 600 foreign citizens stay in the U.S. illegally, according to the
indictments, which describe a novel investigation that dates to 2015 but
intensified one month into President Donald Trump's tenure as part of a
broader crackdown on illegal immigration.
Simultaneously Wednesday, federal agents arrested
dozens of University of Farmington students in a nationwide sweep. The
students were arrested on immigration violations and face possible
deportation, according to a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement.
Most of the recruiters and students involved are originally from India, according to prosecutors. “It’s
creative and it’s not entrapment,” said Peter Henning, a Wayne State
University law professor and former federal prosecutor. “The government
can put out the bait, but it’s up to the defendants to fall for it.”
Those charged include:
• Bharath Kakireddy, 29, of Lake Mary, Florida.
• Aswanth Nune, 26, of Atlanta.
• Suresh Reddy Kandala, 31, of Culpeper, Virginia.
• Phanideep Karnati, 35, of Louisville, Kentucky.
• Prem Kumar Rampeesa, 26, of Charlotte, North Carolina.
• Santosh Reddy Sama, 28, of Fremont, California.
• Avinash Thakkallapally, 28, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
• Naveen Prathipati, 29, of Dallas.
• Aswanth Nune, 26, of Atlanta.
• Suresh Reddy Kandala, 31, of Culpeper, Virginia.
• Phanideep Karnati, 35, of Louisville, Kentucky.
• Prem Kumar Rampeesa, 26, of Charlotte, North Carolina.
• Santosh Reddy Sama, 28, of Fremont, California.
• Avinash Thakkallapally, 28, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
• Naveen Prathipati, 29, of Dallas.
"These suspects aided hundreds of foreign nationals to
remain in the United States illegally by helping to portray them as
students, which they most certainly were not," said Steve Francis,
special agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s
Homeland Security Investigations office in Detroit.
The eight defendants have all been arrested.
Immigration crimes alleged in the indictment continued until this month
and involved Homeland Security agents posing as owners and employees of
the university. The university had a professional website, a
red-and-blue coat of arms, a Latin slogan meaning "knowledge and
work" and a physical location at a commercial building on Northwestern
Highway.
"... the university was being used by foreign citizens
as a 'pay to stay' scheme which allowed these individuals to stay in
the United States as a result of of foreign citizens falsely asserting
that they were enrolled as full-time students in an approved educational
program and that they were making normal progress toward completion of
the course of study," the indictment reads.
The
recruiters helped foreign citizens fraudulently obtain immigration
documents from the university and helped create phony student records,
including transcripts, according to the government.
“We
are all aware that international students can be a valuable asset to
our country, but as this case shows, the well-intended international
student visa program can also be exploited and abused,” U.S. Attorney
Matthew Schneider said in a statement Wednesday.
The recruiters didn't know the university was fake, however, and operated by federal agents. The students knew that the university's program was illegal, according to the indictment.
According to the indictment, the recruiters helped
hundreds of foreign citizens fraudulently maintain non-immigrant status
as students and stay in the U.S. illegally, prosecutors allege.
In
February 2017, Sama called the university and inquired about enrolling
as a student "without attending classes in order to fraudulently
maintain his immigration status," according to the indictment.
During
the phone call with an undercover agent, Sama also requested a tuition
reduction for bringing students to the university.
Within
weeks, Kandala, Kakireddy and Thakkallapally contacted undercover
agents with identical requests, according to the government.
In late 2017, the recruiters started getting paid for recruiting the phony students.
Sama
and Kandala met with an undercover agent at the university in January
2018 to collect $20,000 for recruiting students, prosecutors allege.
Sama collected another $20,000 in June 2018, according to the indictment.
The fake university is a new chapter in a long history of federal agents creating phony entities to thwart crime.
The University of Farmington has its own Facebook page, too, with a calendar of events, including one scheduled for next week with non-existent university officials.
As part of the alleged Farmington scheme, recruiters
intended to help shield and hide the students from immigration
authorities, according to the indictment.
Matt Friedman, co-founder of the Tanner Friedman
strategic communications firm, works in an adjoining building and was
puzzled by the university's name and office.
There were no classrooms and the university's name seemed peculiar, he said.
"I
was like 'what is this?'" Friedman said Wednesday. "I'd never heard of
it before and never saw anybody there. The whole thing was just odd."
||||| Estimated Costs |||||
UndergraduateTuition: $2000 a quarter.
Fees: Approx. $500.
Total: $8,500 a year.
Graduate
Tuition: $2500 a quarter.
Fees: Approx. $1000.
Total: $11,000 a year.
||||| This is all it cost for a "student" to not attend any classes in order to fraudulently
maintain his or her immigration status. |||||
