Owner Of San Jose-Based Technology Staffing Firm Pleads Guilty To Visa Fraud, Conspiracy To Commit Visa Fraud

Press Release

Co-Owner of Staffing Firm and Owner of Legal Outsourcing Firm Also Admitted to Submitting Fraudulent Visa Applications

SAN JOSE - Kishore Dattapuram pleaded guilty in federal court this week to visa fraud and conspiracy to commit visa fraud.

Dattapuram, 55, of Santa Clara, and two other defendants, Kumar Aswapathi, 55, of Austin, Tex., and Santosh Giri, 48, of San Jose, were each charged in an indictment filed Feb. 28, 2019, with one count of conspiracy to commit visa fraud and 10 counts of substantive visa fraud. Aswapathi pleaded guilty to all counts on Oct. 19, 2020. Giri pleaded guilty to all counts on Oct. 28, 2024.

Dattapuram and Aswapathi owned and operated Nanosemantics, Inc., a staffing firm headquartered in San Jose that provided skilled employees to technology companies in the Bay Area. Under its agreements with the companies and the employees it placed, Nanosemantics received a commission for workers placed at client companies. Giri worked closely with Nanosemantics and was also the owner of a separate business, LexGiri, a legal process outsourcing firm that served as a "remote-virtual corporate immigration specialist" for companies.

In connection with its staffing work, Nanosemantics regularly submitted H-1B petitions for foreign workers. As described in court records, the H-1B visa program allows foreign workers to obtain temporary authorization to live and work for employers in the United States. In order to secure an H-1B visa, an employer or other sponsor must submit a Form I-129 petition to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). A petition and associated documentation must confirm the existence and duration of the job waiting for the worker, and describe key details including the wages associated with the position.

In pleading guilty, Dattapuram admitted to working with Aswapathi and Giri to submit fraudulent H-1B applications that falsely represented that foreign workers had specific jobs waiting for them at designated end-client companies when in fact the jobs did not exist. On multiple occasions, Dattapuram paid companies to be listed as end-clients for the foreign workers, even though he knew the workers would never work for those employers. As defendants admitted, the goal of the scheme was to allow Nanosemantics to obtain visas for job candidates before securing jobs for them, thereby allowing Nanosemantics to place those workers with employers as soon as those jobs were available, rather than waiting for the visa application process to conclude, and giving Nanosemantics an unfair advantage over its competitors.

The announcement was made by First Assistant United States Attorney Patrick D. Robbins and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Special Agent in Charge Tatum King.

Dattapuram's sentencing hearing is scheduled for Feb. 24, 2025, before the Honorable Edward J. Davila, U.S. District Judge. Giri's sentencing hearing is also scheduled for Feb. 24, 2025, before Judge Davila. Aswapathi has a status regarding sentencing on Nov. 25, 2024, before Judge Davila. Each defendant faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 for each visa fraud count, and a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 on the conspiracy count. However, any sentence will be imposed by the court only after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the federal statute governing the imposition of a sentence, 18 U.S.C. § 3553.

Assistant United States Attorney Sarah Griswold and Special Assistant United States Attorney Johnny James are prosecuting this case with the assistance of Lynette Dixon and Nina Burney. The prosecution is the result of an investigation by HSI, with assistance from USCIS.

Updated November 6, 2024