Phanideep Karnati jailed for six months for USA student visa fraud
On January 29, 2020, Judge Gershwin Drain of U.S. District Court in Detroit sentenced Phanideep Karnati, 36, to six months in jail. He was charged with recruiting students from India, for a fee, to the fake university in Detroit set up by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as part of a sting operation. The six months sentence was much lower than the 24 to 30 months that sought by the prosecutors.
Judge Drain said that Karnati was free until he had to report for his prison sentence. But, according to news reports, ICE agents who were in the courtroom immediately took him into custody after the sentencing. As Karnati was led away by ICE agents, his wife and sons, ages 3 and 10, wept.
Karnati and his family, now with no immigration status in the U.S. because of his conviction, will be deported to India after he serves his six months in federal prison.
From December 2017 to March 2018, Karnati recruited 39 students for the fake University of Farmington, making $300 per student, according to USA Today. In January 2019, when Karnati landed at the Detroit airport, to visit the University of Farmington’s office for a meeting, he “...was put to the wall, searched, shackled in front of everybody and paraded…all across the airport while everyone is watching...That was the most embarrassing and shameful moment I ever had in my life," he said according to USA Today.
Karnati, who is in the U.S. on a H1-B work visa, was employed in information technology for a health insurance company in Kentucky. He reportedly earned over $100,000 a year from the IT job. He earned additional income by recruiting students for the fake university.
Karnati was born in 1983 in southern India into a Telugu-speaking family. He got his bachelor's degree in electrical and electronics engineering at Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University in Hyderabad. In the U.S., Karnati worked for GE, Syntel and for five years at Humana, a health insurance company in Louisville, Kentucky, according to news reports.
After he was criminally charged in January, he lost his job but in 2019 earned a master's degree in business analytics at the University of Louisville and enrolled in their PhD program in computer engineering and computer science, according to USA Today.. He then reportedly worked as a lead data scientist at Traveler's Insurance in Connecticut.
Over 250 Indian students arrested and deported from America
More than 600 foreign students, mostly Indians, enrolled in the fake Farmington University in Michigan. The university was set up as part of a four-year undercover operation run by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The students had legally entered the U.S. for education. But since the university was fake they lost their immigration status.
In 2019, about 250 students, mostly from India, who enrolled at the fake university, were arrested. Most of them departed voluntarily from the U.S. About 10% of them are reported to be legally contesting their removal from the U.S.
Many Indians are used to getting official documents by bending India’s legal rules, by paying bribes and getting help from politicians and top bureaucrats, legal experts say. When they get to America, they assume they can use similar tactics to get visas and other official documents. They need to recognize that the laws and legal systems in the U.S. cannot be bent as in India, legal experts say.
Foreign students can be deported if they don't make progress in their studies
"Criminals and some students...exploit the student visa system, allowing foreign nationals to remain in the United States in violation of their non-immigrant status," noted Derek Benner, Acting Deputy Director, U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement, defending the actions of his agency in a letter to editors in December 2019. (Full text of the letter below.)
Benner continued, "Every nonimmigrant student is required to “make normal progress toward completing a course of study” as a condition of maintaining their status. If they don’t meet that standard, they are subject to arrest and removal from the country. The individuals who enrolled at Farmington, knowingly and willfully violated their nonimmigrant visa status and consequently were subject to removal from the United States."
"These individuals were not new to the U.S. student visa system; they were familiar with its requirements and their obligations. They secured visas to enroll in another U.S. school, and were already in the United States when they transferred to Farmington. In addition, prior to enrolling at Farmington, each prospective enrollee was informed that there were no classes, curriculum or teachers at Farmington. Despite this, individuals enrolled because they saw an opportunity to avoid any academic requirements and, instead, work full-time, which was a violation of their nonimmigrant status. Evidence, including video footage, audio recordings, and correspondence collected during the investigation supports that each prospective enrollee knowingly and willfully violated their nonimmigrant status."
Eight Indians jailed and to be deported back to India for student visa fraud
Phanideep Karnati,35, of Kentucky, and seven other Indians were charged with the crime of recruiting students to the fake University of Farmington in the U.S. Federal prosecutors charged them of a "pay-to-stay" scheme where students pay tuition to remain legally in the U.S. Seven of the eight recruiters, who faced criminal charges in the case, have been sentenced to jail by a judge. According to the Free Press, they are: Barath Kakireddy, 29, of Lake Mary, Fla., sentenced to 18 months in jail; Suresh Kandala, 31, of Culpeper, Va., 18 months; Santosh Sama, 28, of Fremont, Calif., 24 months; Avinash Thakkallapally, 28, of Harrisburg, Pa., 15 months; Aswanth Nune, 26, of Atlanta, 12 months; Naveen Prathipati, 26, of Dallas, 12 months and Prem Rampeesa, 27, 12 months.
LETTER FROM ICE DIRECTOR
Acting Deputy Director sets the record straight on fraud investigations involving undercover schools
12/20/2019
Acting Deputy Director Derek Benner addresses the public misconceptions about ICE Homeland Security Investigations’ use of undercover schools – specifically the University of Farmington – to identify and disrupt attempts by foreign students and recruiters to exploit the nonimmigrant student visa system to remain in the country through fraud.
Dear Editor:
Over the past few weeks, the University of Farmington (Farmington), an undercover investigation run by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), has been the focus of several media reports. These reports mischaracterized the purpose and rationale for the investigation, and I want to set the record straight. HSI is responsible for enforcing more than 400 federal statutes, including laws related to the student visa system. An estimated 1.2 million nonimmigrant students studied at more than 8,200 U.S. schools during 2018, promoting cultural exchange, providing billions of dollars to the U.S. economy, and contributing to research and development. Criminals and some students, however, exploit the student visa system, allowing foreign nationals to remain in the United States in violation of their nonimmigrant status.
When a nonimmigrant student decides to enroll in a program of study in the United States, the student must abide by U.S. laws and regulations to maintain their nonimmigrant status. Above all, their primary purpose while in the United States must be to study. Every nonimmigrant student is required to “make normal progress toward completing a course of study” as a condition of maintaining their status. If they don’t meet that standard, they are subject to arrest and removal from the country. The individuals who enrolled at Farmington, knowingly and willfully violated their nonimmigrant visa status and consequently were subject to removal from the United States.
These individuals were not new to the U.S. student visa system; they were familiar with its requirements and their obligations. They secured visas to enroll in another U.S. school, and were already in the United States when they transferred to Farmington. In addition, prior to enrolling at Farmington, each prospective enrollee was informed that there were no classes, curriculum or teachers at Farmington. Despite this, individuals enrolled because they saw an opportunity to avoid any academic requirements and, instead, work full-time, which was a violation of their nonimmigrant status. Evidence, including video footage, audio recordings, and correspondence collected during the investigation supports that each prospective enrollee knowingly and willfully violated their nonimmigrant status.
Farmington is a clear example of a pay-to-stay scheme, which is against the law and, not only creates a dangerous lack of accountability, but also diminishes the quality and integrity of the U.S. student visa system. Undercover investigations like this one provide law enforcement an inside look into how these networks operate, which was the primary purpose in establishing Farmington. The investigation provided HSI with a better understanding of how recruiters and others abuse the nonimmigrant student visa system. This, in turn, informs and improves DHS’ efforts to uncover fraud at schools, provides insight into networks within the United States that facilitate such abuse, and serves as a deterrent to potential violators both in the short- and long-term.
As sworn civil servants, HSI special agents will continue to uphold the Constitution and protect the country’s borders and immigration laws. The rules and regulations that govern the student visa system help protect the country from individuals who seek to abuse the system or remain illegally in the United States. HSI is responsible for investigating these kinds of violations, which is precisely what it did by establishing Farmington to investigate a complex fraud scheme used across the country to undermine U.S. laws and individuals’ safety.
Sincerely,
Derek Benner, Acting Deputy Director, U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement
