Slap on the Wrist for Big Indian Outsourcing Firm with Hundreds of Visa-Fraud Charges
No Jail Time, No Debarment from Work-Visa Programs
By David North on September 23, 2019
The headline on the ICE press release sounded promising: "Indian management consulting firm agrees to $2.5 million global settlement in North Texas for visa fraud, inducing aliens to enter US".
The firm, Mu Sigma, with operations in Texas and its base, predictably, in South India (Bangalore), had faced two sets of charges:
It brought in workers from India on tourist visas (B-1, which do not allow one to work in the U.S. economy) and paid them at Indian pay rates for sustained work in the United States, while apparently charging its clients as if they had been paid U.S. rates; and
It forced its H-1Bs to sign illegal bond contracts with $10,000 penalties for workers who left their jobs before a set date; workers leaving their jobs early reduces the corporation's profits.
I had never heard of the firm, whose name refers to terms used in statistics, but it turns out to be a very large one — Forbes says it is worth $1.5 billion.
