Robberies Staged In Elaborate Visa Fraud Conspiracy, Feds Say
CHICAGO — A west suburban man orchestrated at least 20 staged robberies across three states as part of a visa fraud conspiracy, federal authorities say.Prosecutors say the point of the robberies was not to make money, but rather to make victims qualifying for U visas — the legal status for people who have been victims of certain crimes.Parth Nayi, 26, of Woodridge, collected thousands of dollars from people hoping for a path to lawful permanent residency, according to federal prosecutors. Nayi gave some of that cash to Kewon Young, 31, of Mansfield, Ohio, who paid people to act as robbers. The Woodridge man then told his visa-seeking co-conspirators where and when to go so they could become crime victims, according to their recently unsealed indictment.During the staged robberies, the people Young and Nayi had recruited would brandish "what appeared to be firearms," sometimes striking the purported victims to make it seem realistic, prosecutors said.Parth Nayi, 26, of Woodridge, and Kewon Young, 31, of Ohio, are charged with conspiracy to arrange a string of armed robberies in Chicago and the suburbs of Lombard, Elmwood Park, Hickory Hills, River Grove, Lake Villa, South Holland and St. Charles, where they organized a robbery at a Tropical Smoothie Cafe. (Google Maps)The robberies took place at gas stations, liquor stores and restaurants in Chicago and its suburbs, as well as locations in Louisiana and Tennessee, according to the indictment.Some of the "victims" would then file paperwork with police to get certified that they were victims of qualifying crime and that they were willing to help law enforcement in the investigation and prosecution of a crime, it said. Those forms could then be submitted to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to apply for a U visa, which can be a lengthy process. According to USCIS data, 20 percent of applications take more than five years to complete. Prosecutors filed conspiracy to commit visa fraud charges against Nayi, Young and four men who allegedly paid them to be crime victims — Bhikhabhai Patel, 51, of Elizabethtown, Kentucky; Nilesh Patel, 32, of Jackson, Tennessee; Ravinaben Patel, 23, of Racine, Wisconsin, and Rajnikumar Patel, 32, of Jacksonville, Florida.A conviction for visa fraud conspiracy carries with it a maximum sentence of 5 years in federal prison.Feds also charged Ravinaben Patel with one count of making a false statement in a visa application, which can bring a sentence of up to 10 years.Prosecutors in Boston described a similar conspiracy last year, charging two New York men — 36-year-old Rambhai Patel and 39-year-old Balwinder Singh — with conspiracy to commit visa fraud for allegedly staging armed robberies of at least nine liquor stores and fast food restaurants.In that case, prosecutors alleged Rambhai Patel paid the store owners for the use of their stores to stage robberies there. The article Robberies Staged In Elaborate Visa Fraud Conspiracy, Feds Say appeared first on Chicago, IL Patch.
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