Dive Brief:
-
Two brothers Atul Nanda, 46, Jiten "Jay" Nanda, 44, were found guilty one count a piece of conspiracy to commit visa fraud and conspiracy to harbor illegal aliens. They were also found to have committed four counts each of wire fraud.
-
The brothers conspired to create an on-demand workforce to earn easy profits with low overhead through Dibon Solutions, an IT consulting firm started by the Nandas.
-
According to the government, the scheme, known as "benching" brought in a profit margin when a consultant incurred few costs when assigned to a case or when a worker did not have billable work.
Dive Insight:
Workers were recruited and sponsored under the H-1B visa with the purpose of working at Dibon's office. But the company "did not have an actual position at the time they were recruited," according to the government. Instead, the workers would provide consulting services to third-party firms and the workers were only "paid for time spent working at a third-party company and only if the third-party company actually first paid Dibon for the workers' services.”
The H-1B program has been under attack lately from senators that want to restrict IT outsourcers from hiring H-1B workers if more than 50% of their employees are on H-1B or L-1 visas.
