India-West Staff Correspondent

SANTA CLARA, CA – The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California announced that 55-year-old Kishore Dattapuram pleaded guilty in federal court to visa fraud and conspiracy to commit visa fraud. Dattapuram was charged along with two other defendants, Kumar Aswapathi, 55, of Austin, Texas, and Santosh Giri, 48, of San Jose, in a case involving fraudulent H-1B visa applications.

The three defendants face an indictment filed on February 28, 2019; They were each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit visa fraud and 10 counts of substantive visa fraud. Aswapathi had earlier pleaded guilty to all the charges on October 19, 2020, while Giri had pleaded guilty to all the charges on October 28, 2024.

Dattapuram and Aswapathi owned and operated Nanosemantics, Inc., a San Jose-based staffing firm that placed talented employees at technology companies in the Bay Area. Under its agreements with customers and employees, Nanosemantics earned commissions for placing workers at customer companies. Giri, who worked closely with Nanosemantics, was the owner of LexGiri, a legal process outsourcing firm that serves as a “remote virtual corporate migration expert” for companies.

Nanosemantics frequently filed H-1B petitions for foreign workers as part of its staffing operations. The H-1B program allows foreign workers to be granted temporary authorization to work for U.S. employers and requires companies to submit Form I-129 petitions to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) confirming the existence, duration, and salary of the pending position . applicant.

According to his guilty plea, Dattapuram admitted to conspiring with Aswapathi and Giri to submit fraudulent H-1B applications. These applications falsely claimed that foreign workers were offered jobs from certain end-client companies, but that these jobs were not available. Dattapuram also agreed to list paying companies as end customers for these workers, despite knowing that the workers would not actually work for these employers. The plan was intended to allow Nanosemantics to pre-secure candidates’ visas before they found employment, giving the company an advantage over its competitors.

While Dattapuram and Giri’s sentencing has been fixed for February 24, 2025 before Justice Davila, Aswapathi’s sentencing is scheduled for November 25, 2024. Each defendant faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count of visa fraud. The conspiracy charge carries a penalty of up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.