The U.S. government has indicted a Virginia couple for running an H-1B visa-for-sale scheme the government said generated about $20 million.

Raju Kosuri and Smriti Jharia of Ashburn, Va., along with four co-conspirators, were indicted last week by a federal grand jury in Alexandria, Va., according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

The scheme involved, in part, setting up a network of shell companies and the filing of H-1B visas applications for non-existent job vacancies.

Workers were required to pay their own visa processing fees and were treated as hourly contractors, the DOJ alleged. Treating H-1B workers as hourly contractors is in violation of the program rules, the government said.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here