Parth Nayi Sentenced to 2 Years in Federal Prison for Staging Hundreds of Robberies in U-Visa Fraud Scheme
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois announced that Parth Nayi, 29, of Woodridge, Illinois, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Mary M. Rowland to two years in federal prison and fined $50,000 for conspiring to stage armed robberies so that the purported victims could apply for U.S. immigration visas reserved for crime victims. Nayi pleaded guilty earlier this year to conspiracy to commit visa fraud.
From 2022 to 2024, Nayi organized and participated in hundreds of staged armed robberies at coffee shops, restaurants, liquor stores, and gas stations throughout the country, including in Chicago and the suburbs of Lombard, Elmwood Park, St. Charles, Hickory Hills, River Grove, Lake Villa, and South Holland, prosecutors 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. During the staged robberies, individuals acting as robbers brandished what appeared to be firearms, approached the purported victims, and demanded money.
Afterwards, the purported victims submitted forms to local law enforcement to obtain certification that they were victims of a qualifying crime and were helpful in the investigation, then submitted fraudulent U-visa applications to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The U nonimmigrant visa is set aside for foreign nationals who are victims of certain crimes and are helpful to law enforcement. Thousands of individuals who posed as victims each paid Nayi $5,000 to $30,000 to participate in the scam, prosecutors said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Saqib Mohammad Hussain argued in the government's sentencing memorandum that Nayi was the main organizer and at the center of almost every single one of the hundreds of staged robberies, and that he significantly corrupted the federal U-visa program, which is designed to provide a benefit to a particularly vulnerable group. Matthew Scarpino, Special Agent-in-Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Chicago, said the defendant turned a program meant to protect vulnerable victims into a criminal enterprise for profit.
The case was investigated by the FBI's Chicago Field Office and HSI Chicago, and the sentence was announced by Andrew S. Boutros, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. Five other individuals have also been convicted as part of the federal investigation.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: Chicago的Dirksen联邦法院大楼（本案宣判法院所在地）。照片：Ken Lund，CC BY-SA 2.0，经Wikimedia Commons。当事人无官方照片，以法院标准建筑图代之。
