{"id":36072,"date":"2016-08-25T19:27:39","date_gmt":"2016-08-25T23:27:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/?p=36072"},"modified":"2016-08-25T19:27:39","modified_gmt":"2016-08-25T23:27:39","slug":"breaking-ecomnets-head-pleads-guilty-to-visa-fraud-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2016\/08\/25\/breaking-ecomnets-head-pleads-guilty-to-visa-fraud-charges\/","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING: EcomNets head pleads guilty to visa fraud charges"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in May, SouthsideCentral was the first to publish the federal indictment<\/a> against Raj Kosuri (the head of Danville’s EcomNets) and others associated with the business. Kosuri & Friends was indicted on charges regarding visa fraud. Kosuri & his wife were also indicted on more fraud charges in attempting to certify a non-existent business to HUBZone status to get advantages on federal contracts.<\/p>\n

We also published a BreakDown that detailed the charges in the federal indictment and what it all meant<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Today, Raj Kosuri & his wife pleaded guilty to those charges in an Alexandria federal courtroom. Let’s take a look at the statement from the US Attorney’s office. Let’s take a look at the press release from the US Attorney’s office.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This is from the Eastern District of Virginia’s US Attorney’s office…<\/p>\n

ALEXANDRIA, Va. \u2013 Raju Kosuri, 44, and Smriti Jharia, 45, a married couple from Ashburn, pleaded guilty today to charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States and visa fraud, among other charges.<\/p>\n

Kosuri and Jharia were indicted on April 27. According to the statement of facts filed with the plea agreement, Kosuri, Jharia, and their co-conspirators fraudulently applied for more than 900 illegal immigration benefits under the H-1B visa program. Since 2008, and at much greater scale since 2011, Kosuri has built a staffing business that amounts to a visa-for-sale system, in violation of federal law. Kosuri and Jharia also admitted to defrauding the Small Business Administration in connection with a scheme to obtain HUBZone certification for a business named EcomNets Federal Solutions. Kosuri agreed to forfeit proceeds of his fraud schemes in the amount of $20,900,000.<\/p>\n

Dana J. Boente, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Clark E. Settles, Special Agent in Charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement\u2019s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Washington; Bill A. Miller, Director of Diplomatic Security Service (DSS), U.S. Department of State; and Robin Blake, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), Office of Inspector General; and Kimberly Zanotti, Washington Field Office Director, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), made the announcement after the pleas were accepted by U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Paul K. Nitze and Angela Fiorentino-Rios are prosecuting the case.<\/p>\n

The case was investigated by HSI, DSS, DOL-OIG, and USCIS. Assistance was provided by the Virginia Office of the State Inspector General, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General, the Loudoun County Sheriff\u2019s Office, and the Fairfax County Police Department.<\/p>\n

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 1:16-CR-43<\/p>\n

\n

There’s no word on sentencing for Kosuri & his wife, but you can see that Kosuri is forfeiting $20,900,000 in the plea agreement. Ouch.<\/p>\n

We’ll keep you up to date with the next steps in this case… and it’s first here on SouthsideCentral!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back in May, SouthsideCentral was the first to publish the federal indictment against Raj Kosuri (the head of Danville’s EcomNets) and others associated with the business. Kosuri & Friends was indicted on charges regarding visa fraud. Kosuri & his wife were also indicted on more fraud charges in attempting to certify a non-existent business to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[54,4,58,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-businesscentral","category-danville","category-newscentral","odd"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pwqFk-9nO","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":26128,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2016\/05\/11\/breakdown-the-ecomnets-indictment\/","url_meta":{"origin":36072,"position":0},"title":"BreakDown: The “EcomNets” Indictment","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"May 11, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Earlier, we published the 27-page federal indictment against the owner of EcomNets and other of his business associates. Now let's take a comprehensive look at what it means. We call this a BreakDown. Again, here's the link to the article where you can read the entire indictment. Let's pull out\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "BreakDown"","block_context":{"text":"BreakDown","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/featurescentral\/breakdown\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/KuEywg6.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":26083,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2016\/05\/11\/the-ecomnets-indictment\/","url_meta":{"origin":36072,"position":1},"title":"The “EcomNets” Indictment","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"May 11, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"On April 26th, Raja Kosuri (the owner of EcomNets, with a Danville office in the Airside Industrial Park) and five other people were indicted by a Federal Grand Jury. There were a total of 21 charges and a Forfeiture Notice as well. SouthsideCentral is publishing the full indictment so that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "BusinessCentral"","block_context":{"text":"BusinessCentral","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/businesscentral\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/0yAV3PH.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8650,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2014\/05\/16\/so-thats-a-federal-indictment\/","url_meta":{"origin":36072,"position":2},"title":"So That’s a Federal Indictment…","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"May 16, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Today, the US Attorney's Office unsealed an indictment... and the 39 page indictment is definitely some good reading. First, let's recap this murder case in a press release from the US Attorney's office... EIGHT INDICTED ON FEDERAL RACKETEERING CHARGES Allegations Include the Kidnapping and Murder of Officer Kevin Quick CHARLOTTESVILLE,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "NewsCentral"","block_context":{"text":"NewsCentral","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/newscentral\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12514,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2015\/04\/29\/photocentral-business-after-hours-ecomnets-part-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":36072,"position":3},"title":"PhotoCentral: Business After Hours – Ecomnets (Part #2)","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"April 29, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"We just published Part #1 of our PhotoCentral set of articles about the Danville Pittsylvania County Chamber of Commerce's Business After Hours event at Ecomnets on Tuesday night. Let's wrap it up with Part #2. Have I mentioned that you should join the Chamber? 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Let's take a look at some photos from the event. Shameless plug: Join the Chamber. It's well worth it. We've got enough photos for two articles, so let's get started. That's the first part of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "BusinessCentral"","block_context":{"text":"BusinessCentral","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/businesscentral\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/F0uvy7l.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/F0uvy7l.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/F0uvy7l.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/F0uvy7l.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7770,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2013\/06\/29\/whos-1-biggest-job-announcement-busts-part-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":36072,"position":5},"title":"Who’s #1? – Biggest Job Announcement Busts – Part #1","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"June 29, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"SouthsideCentral has been working on a countdown of the biggest job busts that have been announced in the Southside Region in the last few years. 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