Detroit: The US law enforcement agencies have arrested eight Indian student recruiters after authorities unearthed a huge university scam.
According to reports, the US officials conducted multiple raids in the last two days to detain illegal foreign students. Sources say that the raids were carried out in Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Georgia, Ohio and Texas.
Immigration officials said that the accused had allegedly misused student visas and helped unqualified students to stay back in the US with fake documents.
Bharath Kakireddy (29) from Florida, Aswanth Nune (26) from Atlanta, Suresh Reddy Kandala (31) from Virginia, Phanideep Karnati (35) from Kentucky, Prem Kumar Rampeesa (26) from North Carolina, Santosh Reddy Sama (28) from California, Avinash Thakkallapally (28) from Pennsylvania and Naveen Prathipati (29) from Dallas are the arrested eight.
The US undercover agencies used a fake college ‘University of Farmington’ to lay a trap for the fraud recruiters, who were apparently unaware that the university was fake and used it to illegally get documents for foreign students most of whom were Indians.
Hundreds of Indian students could face criminal cases or be deported, as the law enforcement agencies say that many students who had enrolled with the fake university have been taken into custody.
The accused who have been charged on several counts, obtained Certificates of Eligibility for Non-Immigrant Student Status or I-20 by making false statements, and also collected thousands of dollars in the name of the fake university for recruiting students.
Sources from the US law enforcement claim that the students, who had enrolled with the University of Farmington, knew that it was fake and were illegally staying back in the US.
