Six people have been indicted in federal court on charges they conspired to stage armed robberies in Chicago and several suburbs as part of an effort to apply for U.S. immigration visas reserved for crime victims, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced in a news release.
According to the indictment handed down in May and unsealed in federal court in Chicago, Parth Nayi, 26, of west suburban Woodridge, and Kewon Young, 31, of Mansfield Ohio, allegedly organized and participated in staged armed robberies at restaurants, coffee shops, liquor stores and gas stations in Chicago, the west suburbs of Lombard, Elmwood Park, St. Charles and River Grove, in south suburban Hickory Hills and South Holland, in the far north suburb of Lake Villa, as well as at restaurants in Rayne, Louisiana, and Belvidere, Tennessee.
The indictment states that Bhikhabhai Patel, 51, of Elizabethtown, Kentucky; Nilesh Patel, 32, of Jackson, Tennessee; Ravinaben Patel 23, of Racine, Wisconsin; and Rajnikumar Patel, 32, of Jacksonville, Florida; arranged with Nayi to be “victims” of the staged robberies so that they could submit applications for U nonimmigrant status.
They are all charged with conspiracy to commit visa fraud, the release states.
According to the indictment – and among a list of other alleged crimes, Nayi and Young, along with other co-conspirators, “organized and staged” a robbery at a fast food restaurant in Elmwood Park on Dec. 17, 2022.
The pair allegedly did it again Jan. 25, 2023 at a liquor store in River Grove.
Also known as U-visa, the status is set aside for victims of certain crimes who have suffered mental or physical abuse and are helpful to law enforcement or government officials in an investigation or prosecution, authorities explain in the indictment.
The indictment alleges that individuals paid Nayi thousands of dollars to participate in the scam.
During the staged robberies, individuals acting as robbers brandished what appeared to be firearms, approached the purported “victims” and demanded money and property, the indictment states.
Afterwards, the alleged victims would submit forms to local law enforcement to obtain certification that they were victims of a qualifying crime and had been or would be helpful in the investigation, according to the indictment.
“Upon receiving certification, some of the purported victims then submitted fraudulent U-visa applications to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services predicated upon their alleged status as a robbery victim,” authorities stated in the release.
Patel also is charged with an individual count of making a false statement in a visa application.
The conspiracy charge is punishable by a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison while the false statement charge against Patel is punishable by up to 10 years, the release states.
According to the release, the indictment was announced by Morris Pasqual, acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Robert “Wes” Wheeler Jr., special agent in charge of the FBI Chicago field office and Sean Fitzgerald, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Chicago.
