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Six men held in immigration fraud scheme

BY ROBERT E. KESSLER June 11, 2008

Superior technical computers skills will help get you to the head of the line for visas to enter the United States.

Running a greeting card store on Long Island should not, federal officials said yesterday in arresting three Suffolk men as part of a nationwide roundup of six Indian nationals in a complex immigration fraud scheme.

The scheme centered on a computer consulting firm in Edison, N.J., Cygate Software & Consulting. Its principal, Nilesh Dasondi, certified that the three Long Islanders had technical skills that were needed by his company, but for which United States citizens could not be easily found, officials said.

People with those kinds of skills can enter the United States with special visas called H-1Bs.

Dasondi, who also was charged, falsely placed the three - and at least three others in New Jersey, Chicago and Arizona - on his company's payroll, the court papers said.

Between 2004 and 2007, the three Long Islanders provided monthly payments totaling tens of thousands of dollars to Dasondi, according to the papers filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Burt Ryan.

The money was used in a process called "running the payroll," the papers said, and outlined the scheme as follows:

First, false pay stubs, paychecks and health insurance payments were created and submitted to the government as "proof" of the employment of the three as computer experts at Cygate.

Next, some of the money was used to pay state and federal taxes owed on supposed pay.

Lastly, an unidentified amount of the money given to Dasondi was returned to the three, and Dasondi kept some.

The three people arrested on Long Island, and the amount they paid Dasondi, were identified in court papers as:

Kishor Parikh, 42, of 8 Avenue J, Ronkonkoma, who operated VMR Cards and Gifts, Medford, and paid $73,000 to Dasondi.

Devang Patel, 31, of 143 Webster Ave., Ronkonkoma, who operated the 50% Off Card Store, 312 Portion Rd., Lake Ronkonkoma, and L & A Cards, 209 W. Main St., Sayville. He paid $104,000.

Chetan Trivedi, 40, also of 143 Webster Ave., Ronkonkoma. His employment was unknown, and he paid $71,000.

Dasondi, a naturalized citizen, was held for a bail hearing today in U.S. District Court in Newark, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Sandra Moser. Parikh, Patel and Trivedi will have bail hearings today in U.S. District Court in Central Islip.

Trivedi's attorney, Paul Rethier of Sound Beach, said his client was "an upstanding gentlemen" but added he wasn't yet familiar with the details of the case. Ryan declined to comment. Attorneys for the other three and a spokesman for the company could not immediately be reached.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/crime/ny-livisa1
15722155jun11,0,3987393.story

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