Promised American dream jobs that never...: How an Indian-origin duo ran a fake H-1B visa scheme for 2.5 years

 

H-1B visa fraud: A University of California insider and a California-based visa firm operator spent nearly three years quietly gaming one of America's most competitive immigration systems. Their method was straightforward: file visa applications for jobs that did not exist, secure the approvals, then quietly place the workers elsewhere. Last week, it caught up with them.

Sampath Rajidi and Sreedhar Mada, both 51 and residents of Dublin in California's East Bay, pleaded guilty this week on charges of conspiracy to commit H-1B visa fraud. The US Justice Department made the announcement on Friday.

The operation behind the fraud

Rajidi ran two companies, S-Team Software Inc and Uptrend Technologies LLC, both structured around sourcing foreign workers and placing them temporarily with businesses through the H-1B visa route.

What gave the scheme its edge was Mada's position inside the University of California system. As Chief Information Officer at UC Agriculture and Natural Resources in Davis, he held supervisory authority over his department, a title that lent institutional credibility to the fraudulent petitions, even though his role did not actually permit him to hire H-1B workers without sign-off from senior leadership.

From June 2020 through January 2023, the two filed a series of fraudulent visa petitions for multiple candidates, claiming each would be employed in roles at the University of California. None of those roles existed. Once the visas were approved, the workers were marketed to entirely different employers, private clients who had nothing to do with the university named on the original petitions.

As federal prosecutors noted, the defendants were fully aware that the claims they made were material to how immigration authorities evaluated and approved visa applications. They proceeded regardless.

A rigged race for limited slots

The harm extended well beyond the individuals directly deceived. H-1B visas are allocated through a lottery system with far more applicants than available slots each year. By filing petitions backed by false institutional claims, Rajidi and Mada secured approvals their candidates would not otherwise have received, effectively taking spots away from applicants at competing firms who were playing by the rules.

Their conspiracy, prosecutors said, directly reduced the number of visas available to legitimate applicants in the same cycle.

Sentencing and what follows

Both men will appear before US District Judge Troy L Nunley on July 30, 2026. Each faces up to five years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

The investigation spans several federal agencies, including the US Department of State's Diplomatic Security Service, Homeland Security Investigations, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, and the USCIS Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant US Attorney Douglas Harman.