Tech Execs Indicted for H-1B Visa Fraud

A pair of tech executives have been indicted for allegedly using false documents to bring in help through the H-1B guest worker program.

Dynasoft Synergy’s Chief Executive Officer Jayavel Murugan, 46, and 40-year-old Syed Nawaz are accused in an unsealed federal grand jury indictment of trying to apply for H-1B visa workers using fraudulent documents and then hiring them out to tech firms, according to Mercury News.

Dynasoft operates as an “employment firm” that essentially leases foreign workers. The company also has an office in India.

According to prosecutors, Murugan and Nawaz used the false documents to replace American workers at Stanford University, Cisco, and Brocade. Nonetheless, the employers were not looking to use the H-1B workers, despite being named in the false documents allegedly produced by the two men.

Murugan and Nawaz are charged with 26 counts including H-1B visa fraud, using fraudulent documents, mail fraud, identity theft, and conspiracy to commit visa fraud.

The federal indictments point to a much bigger problem with the H-1B visa program, where millions of American workers have been ousted to make way for cheaper, foreign workers.

President of Protect U.S. Workers Sara Blackwell, an attorney who represents American workers that are victims of the H-1B visa system, told Breitbart Texas that fraud cases within the H-1B program are just one facet.

“Fraud is very rampant in the visa process,” Blackwell told Breitbart Texas. “The legitimate H-1B visa program is awful enough. I see fraud … I hear about it constantly. It’s very, very common.”

Every year, some 85,000 H-1B applications are applied for by tech giants, U.S. corporations, and foreign employment firms.

“The big CEOs literally say that it’s cheap labor,” Blackwell said.

If the H-1B visa program had never been introduced and enacted, computer science job availability in the labor market would be up 11 percent and wages in the tech industry would have increased by five percent, as Breitbart News reported.

The H-1B visa remains incredibly unpopular with American voters. As Breitbart Texas reported, only 30 percent of Americans say companies bringing in foreign workers to fill jobs are necessary.

Additionally, some 44 percent said those foreign workers take jobs away. The vast majority of Americans also said the number of H-1B visas allotted every year to companies should either be decreased or kept at the current levels.

So-called “reform” legislation that has been marketed by two congressmen as a step in the right direction to weeding out abuses in the H-1B visa program would actually have zero impact, an expert told Breitbart Texas.

Companies like IBM, Disney, Microsoft, and Facebook have all asked Congress to increase the number of H-1B foreign workers that are brought into the U.S. every year, the New York Times reported, making it even more likely for American workers to be fired from their jobs to make room for foreign labor.

John Binder is a contributor for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.