An Indian national has admitted guilt in a conspiracy involving visa fraud, which included orchestrating armed robberies to enable individuals to falsely assert they were victims of crime and thereby gain U.S. immigration benefits.
Mitul Patel, a 40-year-old resident of Worcester, Massachusetts, entered a guilty plea in federal court in Boston for conspiracy to commit visa fraud.
Prosecutors indicated that Patel was part of a group of Indian nationals engaged in a scheme aimed at unlawfully obtaining U visas, a type of immigration relief granted to victims of specific crimes who cooperate with law enforcement investigations.
The conspirators planned staged armed robberies at various convenience stores, liquor stores, and restaurants in Massachusetts and beyond.
Federal authorities indicated that individuals involved would orchestrate fictitious robberies, during which a person impersonating a robber brandished what seemed to be a firearm and stole cash from store registers.
Prosecutors claimed that Patel acted as one of the supposed victims in a contrived robbery and subsequently pursued immigration advantages based on the invented event.
His guilty plea represents the most recent advancement in a wider federal inquiry into the operation.
