Thousands of Foreigners Paid Up to $30,000 Each to Star in Fake Armed Robberies and Claim Crime-Victim Visas. The Ringleader Got Two Years

For about two years, a suburban Chicago man ran what amounted to a fake-crime business. Foreign nationals paid him to be "robbed." He hired the robbers, paid off the store owners and coached the "victims" on what to tell police. The goal was a police signature that opens the door to a U.S. visa meant for real crime victims.

Parth Nayi, 29, of Woodridge, Ill., organized and took part in "hundreds of staged armed robberies" at coffee shops, restaurants, liquor stores and gas stations across the country from 2022 to 2024, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Chicago announced. "Thousands of individuals" who posed as victims each paid him $5,000 to $30,000, prosecutors said.

On Oct. 22, U.S. District Judge Mary M. Rowland sentenced him to two years in federal prison and a $50,000 fine. He had pleaded guilty earlier this year to conspiracy to commit visa fraud, a charge that carries up to five years.

Do the math on prosecutors' own numbers: even 2,000 fake victims at the $5,000 floor comes to $10 million.

How a fake robbery becomes a visa

The U visa was created for foreign nationals who are victims of serious crimes and help police or prosecutors with the case. To apply, a petitioner needs a local law enforcement agency to sign a federal form certifying both things.

Nayi's scheme manufactured the crime. According to the 2024 federal indictment, the "robbers" brandished what appeared to be firearms, demanded money and property, and fled. "On certain occasions," they struck the purported victims at the direction of Nayi and a co-defendant "to make the staged robbery appear real." The "victims" then went to the local police department, asked for the certification and filed their U visa petitions with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The indictment lists stops at a Fas Fuel in Lombard, Subway restaurants in Chicago and Elmwood Park, a Tropical Smoothie Cafe in St. Charles and a Dunkin' Donuts in Chicago, plus a Subway in Rayne, Louisiana, and a truck stop in Belvidere, Tennessee. Each one meant police officers taking a report on a crime that never happened.

Why people pay $30,000 for it

Congress caps U visas at 10,000 a year for principal petitioners. Demand is more than three times that. In fiscal 2025, USCIS received 33,647 new principal petitions, according to the agency's annual report to Congress.

The value is in the wait. Petitions that clear a first review are placed on a waiting list or granted a "bona fide" determination, and USCIS gives those petitioners deferred action, meaning protection from deportation, and can authorize them to work. On average, principal petitioners waited about 40 months just to reach that stage in fiscal 2025, and about 32 more months for a final decision. Approved U visa holders can later apply for a green card.

In other words, a staged robbery could buy years of legal cover while the petition sits in line.

"Corrupted" a program for real victims

"Defendant was the main organizer and at the center of almost every single one of the hundreds of staged robberies that were perpetrated," Assistant U.S. Attorney Saqib Mohammad Hussain wrote in the government's sentencing memorandum. "Defendant significantly corrupted the federal U Visa program, designed to provide a benefit to a particularly vulnerable group—foreign nationals who are victims of serious crimes while visiting the United States."

The case was investigated by the FBI's Chicago Field Office and Homeland Security Investigations in Chicago. Five other people have also been convicted in the investigation, prosecutors said.

What prosecutors haven't said

The release does not say how many of the thousands of paying "victims" were identified, how many U visa petitions were filed or granted off the fake robberies, or whether any of those petitions have been revoked. It also does not say how many police departments signed certifications for crimes that were staged.

Those are the questions that matter most. A two-year sentence closes the case against the organizer. It does not tell the public how many people are still holding work permits and deportation protection that a fake holdup bought them.