United States Attorney Charles M. Oberly, III, announced Srinivas Doppalapudi, a 45 year old citizen of India, in the United States with permanent legal residency (green card) status, pleaded guilty today District Court Sue L. Robinson to visa fraud and money laundering. Doppalapudi’s sentencing has been tentatively scheduled for a date in September.
According to statements made and documents filed in court, from March 2007, through September 2010, Doppalapudi submitted 33 fraudulent H-1B visa applications. In entering his guilty plea to visa fraud, Doppalapudi admitted that from March 2007 through September 2010, he operated several businesses which variously applied for H-1B visas and that on 33 occasions he submitted to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service, service contracts which were false, in that, no such agreement or contract existed and the contracts bore the forged signature of one of the purported parties. Most of the aliens in whose names Doppalapudi requested H-1B visas were in the United States on student visas which were about to expire.
Upon entering his guilty plea, the prosecutor asked that the Court to revoke the defendant’s release on bail and to detain Doppalapudi pending sentencing, which Judge Robinson tentatively scheduled for September. The government advised that Doppalapudi was facing certain deportation upon sentencing and had no incentive to return to sentencing. The government further argued that detention was warranted due to the following: during the commission of the offense he wired transferred in excess of $1 million dollars from his U.S. bank accounts to a bank account in India; that his business website listed offices in India, Singapore, and Canada; and on nine occasions from 2008 through the date of his arrest in July 2011, he had traveled internationally. Full story
