Chicago Man Who Staged Hundreds of Fake Armed Robberies So Migrants Could Seek U-Visas Gets Two Years in Federal Prison
Breitbart, citing CWBChicago, says Parth Nayi pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit visa fraud and was fined $50,000. Similar cases are under investigation in four other states.
A Chicago man who organized staged armed robberies so illegal immigrants could apply for crime-victim visas has been sentenced to two years in federal prison, Breitbart News reports.
The sentence. Parth Nayi, 29, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit visa fraud. Breitbart says U.S. District Judge Mary M. Rowland sentenced him last week and fined him $50,000. Five others were also convicted in the scheme.
The scheme. Prosecutors say Nayi organized fake robberies from 2022 to 2024 at small restaurants, convenience stores and gas stations in Chicago and the suburbs, citing 17 specific incidents. Migrants, most of them of Latin and South American origin according to the report, posed as victims so they could apply for a U-visa by offering to help police catch the supposed robber. They allegedly paid Nayi up to $10,000. Store employees often helped stage the events. Breitbart says one 2023 fake robbery went wrong when a participant accidentally fired a pistol and the bullet hit an employee in the stomach. The employee survived.
The program. Congress created the U-visa in 2000 to help police solve crimes in immigrant communities where people feared coming forward. Breitbart cites a Center for Immigration Studies study that found about 416,000 petitions filed, against an annual cap of 10,000 approvals, and says most are granted whether or not the applicant helped police.
Elsewhere. Federal officials have opened similar investigations in Massachusetts, Kentucky, Ohio and Missouri. In one Massachusetts case, Breitbart says, investigators alleged Rambhai Patel set up staged robberies where clerks handed over cash, waited, then told police they were victims.
Note for readers: the headline's "just two years" is Breitbart's judgment, and we do not know the sentencing range. Breitbart's links between the migrants and "Patel families" come from its own description, and the piece does not say how the CIS figures were counted. We did not read the court record or the CWBChicago report.