Monday, January 16, 2006

Immigration Benefits Fraud—Newark, NJ

A citizen of India has been taken into custody by the US Marshals Service.[1] Narendra Mandalapa, a citizen of India, has been charged with the of under .[2] In addition to taking Mr. Mandalapa into custody, ICE agents have seized US$5.7 million in assets from his bank and brokerage accounts, as well as a Mercedes SUV and a Lexus sedan.[3]

Mr. Mandalapa is accused of filing nearly 1,000 “possibly fraudulent labor-based petitions on behalf if Indian and Pakistani nationals seeking to enter or remain in the United States.”[4] The investigation began when a division of the US Citizenship and Immigration Service uncovered a pattern of alleged fraud in petitions for immigration benefits filed by Mr. Mandalapa through one of his companies, which is alleged to be a shell company created “solely for the purpose of filing fraudulent labor-based petitions for foreign workers.”[5]

Mr. Mandalapa was actually charged in a criminal complaint on October 31, 2005, and in that complaint, it was alleged that he received amounts ranging from US$4,000 to US$22,000 to file the allegedly fraudulent forms vouching for aliens seeking to work in the United States.[6] On November 3, 2005, he posted US$1 million bond secured by cash, and ordered to remain in New Jersey, to surrender his passport, and submit to 24-hour electronic monitoring and house arrest.[7] However, on January 4, 2006, Mr. Mandalapa was ordered to be confined in a corrections facility “without prejudice to [his] right to renew his request for bail.”[8]

The reason why his conditions for release were vacated was partly because he failed to disclose certain property in Edison, New Jersey at which he resided.[9] In addition “many other facts were presented, considered, and relied upon in concluding that the conditions of release should be vacated.”[10]


[1] ICE, , Jan. 13,. 2006.
[2] Id.
[3] Id.
[4] Id.
[5] Id.
[6] See United States v. Mandalapa, No. 2:05-MJ-03117-PS, Complaint (D.N.J. 2005) (available through PACER).
[7] Id. Bail Hearing. Nov. 3, 2005.
[8] Id. Order, Jan. 4, 2006.
[9] Id. Order, Jan. 5, 2006.
[10] Id.

posted by McNabb Associates, P.C. @ 2:52 PM