Migrants stage HUNDREDS of fake robberies in Chicago from 2022 to 2024 to get U Visas in immigration fraud scheme

Parth Nayi, 29, of Woodridge, has been sentenced for organizing hundreds of these fraudulent robberies between 2022 and 2024, and was found out after one of them took a turn for the worse, and a "suspect" accidentally shot a store clerk in the abdomen, critically injuring the victim.

Nayi recruited people to pose as "victims," would pay the store owners to use their business, as well as recruit people to act as "robbers". Those who were robbed would pay between $5,000 and $30,000 in hopes of obtaining a U-visa, which can be given to victims of some crimes who help law enforcement. The "victims" of the crimes would arrive at the businesses followed by the "robbers," and then those purported victims would go to the police to confirm they were victims of a qualified crime.

After obtaining the proper documentation, they would submit the fraudulent U-visa applications, per the Department of Justice. The "robbers" would occasionally hit the victims to sell the act, and they would also carry handguns. But that turned out to be a mistake as someone on the "robbery crew" entered Bucktown Food & Liquor, 1950 North Milwaukee, for their act, but then one of the crew members unintentionally fired the gun and shot a 26-year-old clerk.

Nayi pleaded guilty earlier this year to conspiracy to commit visa fraud. He was fined $50,000 and will spend two years in prison. “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 said. “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.”

Five other people were also convicted in connection with the case.