New York: Two Indian-origin men were arrested on Thursday for defrauding people by posing as federal agents and promising them immigration status in the US and duping the victims of USD 6 million under the scheme.

Hardev Panesar(69) of California and Rafael Hastie(47) of Mexico posed as officers of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and promised that they could obtain immigration status for people in exchange for exorbitant fees. Gurdev Singh(56) of California is also charged with assisting his conspirators in the fraudulent scheme. The three have been arrested and charged with 11 counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and false personation of an officer or employee of the US. The charges carry a total maximum penalty of about 50 years and a million dollars in fine.

The defendants defrauded victims out of approximately six million dollars from the scheme. Panesar, Hastie and Singh collected fees from victims under the guise that they would be able to provide immigration documents.

Instead, the defendants converted the proceeds from the scheme to their personal use and benefit. Panesar, Hastie, Singh and others have solicited and recruited victims across the US, including California and Indiana, and Mexico.

Panesar and Hastie convinced victims that they were agents, in part, because they showed fake agency credentials when meeting with the victims. The two also provided immigration applications to victims and took fingerprints supposedly for immigration forms. They often demanded more money to speed up the process or guarantee the immigration documents by a certain date, the complaint against them said.

PTI