Two men are accused of carrying out eight fake armed robberies across Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Tennessee in order to get the "victims" work visas, but only after charging $10,000 a hit.
Charges were filed Tuesday in Massachusetts against Rambhai Patel and Balwinder Singh, following an FBI investigation which found the seemingly-standard robberies were in fact staged as part of a visa fraud scheme.
A criminal complaint seen by The Messenger said the FBI discovered that the supposed "victims" in the crimes at minimarts and liquor stores had each paid the pair $10,000 to rob them as they posed as shop workers. They would then be able to fast-track their visa applications.
The United States immigration system allows undocumented migrants who are victims of certain crimes to get a "U visa." These are granted under a 23-year-old law designed to help law enforcement investigating certain crimes and only 10,000 are granted each year.
With a backlog of 270,000 applications in 2021 following the Trump administration, President Biden vowed to speed up the process by offering temporary work visas for those waiting. A report issued in 2022 showed that the system was susceptible to fraud as a result.
When the F.B.I. started to investigate the robberies in Jun. 2023, officers got suspicious when they found some victims had been in contact with Patel ahead of the supposed crime.
"Also, investigation revealed that one of the individuals tasked with committing the robberies had traveled via airplane to commit a robbery in circumstances where the money likely to be obtained during the robbery could reasonably be expected to have been less than the cost of the travel to commit the robbery," the complaint said.
Patel allegedly paid another person to carry out the robberies, while also roping in shop owners who allowed the "robberies" to take place in their stores and paying them between $1,500 and $2,000 each time. Singh acted as the driver for each robbery, the complaint stated.
On Nov. 15, the "robber" Patel paid to carry out the crimes worked with an undercover FBI agent to chat with him via WhatsApp. The cooperating witness told Patel that the agent was someone who might be able to help.
"Ok, now how does it go down? Do I got to hop the counter, do I need to pull the gun out, what do you need me to do?" the agent asked Patel in recordings transcribed in the complaint.
"Just show the gun, that’s it, just [unintelligible] hands up, just you know, just take it up from the register, the money, and just give it to me, that’s it," Patel replied, speaking to his role of coordinating each robbery via phone. His cell was seen connected to towers local to each event.
Seven of the eight fake victims filed U Visa applications shortly after the staged robberies took place, the complaint added.
Patel and Singh, both in their 30s and from New York, were arrested Wednesday and charged with conspiracy to commit visa fraud. The eight incidents took place between March 22 and Nov. 9, 2023. Four were in Massachusetts, two in Pennsylvania, another in Kentucky and the other in Tennessee.
The Messenger approached United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) for comment but did not immediately receive a response.