Fake Robberies Fueled Visa Fraud Scheme, Prosecutors Say

On first glance, a slew of eight armed robberies at mini marts and liquor stores in four states this year appeared to be run-of-the-mill crimes.

But F.B.I. agents investigating them noticed patterns that they said could suggest a more complex operation: The robberies, including at least one that involved an apparently fake gun, were staged as part of an elaborate visa-fraud scheme.

Two suspects in the case, Rambhai Patel and Balwinder Singh, were each charged in federal court on Tuesday with one count of conspiracy to commit visa fraud. If convicted they would each face up to five years in prison.

Based on surveillance footage, cellular phone records and interviews with a cooperating witness, the F.B.I. concluded that purported victims each paid $10,000 to be “robbed” in exchange for immigration “papers” and that store owners received $1,500 to $2,000 for providing venues for fake crimes.

A criminal complaint alleges that Mr. Patel’s role included organizing the staged robberies by communicating with the store owners and purported victims, with Mr. Singh serving as a driver.

The case highlights vulnerabilities in a federal program that puts undocumented immigrants who are victims of certain crimes on a path to citizenship by granting them visas.

The so-called U visas are granted under a 23-year-old law devised to help law enforcement agencies investigate and prosecute cases involving domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking, among other crimes. Congress allows the government to issue only 10,000 such visas a year, and the program’s backlog of applications — 270,000 in 2021 — grew significantly under the Trump administration.

When the Biden administration said two years ago that it would speed up the process of issuing temporary work permits for people waiting for U visas, critics warned of the potential for fraud and abuse.

The agency that administers the U visa program, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, has said that it cannot identify the amount of fraud within it. But the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general said in a 2022 audit that the program was “not managed effectively and is susceptible to fraud.”

Charges related to the eight armed robberies were filed at the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts on Tuesday, and the two suspects were arrested on Wednesday. Four of the robberies took place in Massachusetts, and the others in Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Tennessee.

Lawyers for the suspects could not be reached for comment. Both suspects are in their late 30s and have addresses in New York State, according to court documents.

After the first three robberies occurred, in March in Massachusetts, investigators believed they were connected and involved the same armed person, an F.B.I. agent said this week in an affidavit. As the agency learned about other cases involving the same person, evidence suggested that the robberies were not “purely commercial.”

Several victims were in contact with Mr. Patel before the robberies, for example, and in one case a robber traveled by plane for a job in which the money “likely to be obtained” was less than the cost of travel, the affidavit said. The agency also learned about “immigration-related activity of several store employees following their purported victimization.”

After all but one of the eight robberies, law firms representing purported victims applied for U visas, the F.B.I. found.

After one of the robberies, the police in Worcester, Mass., searched a suspect’s vehicle and found a firearm covered in black tape. The F.B.I. agent, Jason Kentros, wrote in his affidavit that he did not believe the gun was real.

To help its case, the F.B.I. asked a cooperating witness to introduce an undercover agent to Mr. Patel as someone who “might be interested in helping with the scheme.”

In November, Mr. Patel told the undercover agent to enter a store for a fake robbery only when it was nearly empty.

“How does it go down?” the agent asked during a call that was recorded on WhatsApp, referring to the robbery. “Do I got to hop the counter, do I need to pull the gun out, what do you need me to do?”

“Just show the gun, that’s it,” Mr. Patel said, adding: “Just take it up from the register, the money, and just give it to me.”

Christine Hauser contributed reporting.