FBI director Kash Patel announces a major crackdown on an immigration scam that was going on for years by two Pakistani men based out of Texas who placed classified ads for fake jobs to orchestrate the scam.Abdul Hadi Murshid, 39, and Muhammad Salman Nasir, 35, a law firm and a business entity, have been indicted for this visa fraud scheme. The law firm and the business entity are the law officers of D Robert Jones PLLC and Reliable Ventures, Inc.
“Major arrests out of @FBIDallas. Abdul Hadi Murshid and Muhammad Salman Nasir — two individuals out of Texas who allegedly oversaw and operated a criminal enterprise circumventing American immigration laws by selling fraudulent visa applications. Well done to our FBI teams and partners in the investigation,” Kash Patel posted.
How this visa fraud worked
The indictment says that they exploited the EB-2, EB-3, and H-1B visa programs by placing classified ads for fake jobs to satisfy Department of Labor requirements. There were no jobs but the ads helped them get labor certifications. Then they submitted petitions with the USCIS for visas. At the time the petitions were submitted, the defendants also submitted an application for legal permanent residence so that the visa seekers could also obtain a green card.According to the indictment, to make the non-existent jobs look legitimate, the defendants received payment from visa seekers, then returned a portion of the money back to the visa seekers as purported payroll.
FBI calls it ‘international crime’
Though two Pakistani-origin men were the face of the entire fraudulent operations, the FBI called it an international crime as they ran an international criminal enterprise for years. “The defendants allegedly oversaw an international criminal enterprise for years that repeatedly undermined our nation’s immigration laws,” FBI Dallas Special Agent in Charge R. Joseph Rothrock said in the release. “These laws are necessary to protect national security and safeguard the lawful immigration process.The FBI and our law enforcement partners will hold any individual accountable that misuses their position of trust for personal profit.”Apart from FBI, the DHS, the USCIS, the Department of State Diplomatic Security Service, the Department of Labor Office were part of the investigation.
