A suburban Chicago man has been sentenced to two years in federal prison for conspiring to stage armed robberies so that the purported victims could apply for U.S. immigration visas reserved for crime victims, the U.S. Department of Justice said. Parth Nayi, 29, of Woodridge, Illinois, pleaded guilty earlier this year to conspiracy to commit visa fraud; on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Mary M. Rowland sentenced him to two years in federal prison and fined him $50,000.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Northern District of Illinois
The Associated Press, reporting on the same sentencing, described Nayi as the leader of the scheme and reported that Judge Rowland gave him a year longer than the term prosecutors recommended. Nayi's attorney, George Gomez, had asked for probation, the AP said.
Source: Associated Press (via SWOK News)
How the scheme worked
From 2022 to 2024, Nayi organised and participated in hundreds of staged armed robberies at coffee shops, restaurants, liquor stores and gas stations across the country, including in Chicago and the suburbs of Lombard, Elmwood Park, St. Charles, Hickory Hills, River Grove, Lake Villa and South Holland, the Justice Department said. Nayi worked with others to recruit fake victims, pay off store owners to use their locations, coordinate and pay fake robbers, and coach the bogus victims through the plan.
Thousands of individuals who posed as victims each paid Nayi $5,000 to $30,000 (yaani about 5 to 30 thousand dollars) to take part so they could later apply for Nonimmigrant U-Visas, which are set aside for foreign nationals who are victims of certain crimes and are helpful to law enforcement in the investigation, according to the department. During the staged robberies, people acting as robbers brandished what appeared to be firearms, approached the purported victims and demanded money. Afterwards, the purported victims obtained law-enforcement certification that they were victims of a qualifying crime and had been helpful, and then submitted fraudulent U-Visa applications to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
What prosecutors said
"Defendant was the main organizer and at the center of almost every single one of the hundreds of staged robberies that were perpetrated," Assistant U.S. Attorney Saqib Mohammad Hussain argued in the government's sentencing memorandum. "Defendant significantly corrupted the federal U Visa program, designed to provide a benefit to a particularly vulnerable group — foreign nationals who are victims of serious crimes while visiting the United States."
The sentence was announced by Andrew S. Boutros, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Ryan Whalen, Special Agent-in-Charge of the FBI's Chicago Field Office; and Matthew Scarpino, Special Agent-in-Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Chicago. Five other individuals have also been convicted as part of the federal investigation, the Justice Department said.