Indian National Sentenced for Immigration and Investment Fraud Scheme

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A native and citizen of India, most recently from Iowa, was sentenced today to four years in prison for an investment fraud scheme and impersonating an employee of the Department of Homeland Security selling genuine United States visas as part of another fraud scheme. 

According to court documents, Kanwar Sarabjit Singh, 51, convinced over 20 members of a local Gospel church in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, that he was a successful businessman who owned a company in India that had a contract with Disney Animation Studios. Promising a large return on their cash investments after a short period of time, Singh took over $340,000 from the victims, many of whom were elderly and had liquidated their retirement accounts or mortgaged their homes, and kept it for himself. Singh also created a fake persona on Facebook and reached out to individuals seeking to come to the United States, or remain in the United States, by offering to get them United States visas in exchange for $3,000 to $4,000. For both schemes, Singh created and used false and fraudulent documents, including a fake identification card purporting to be from the Department of Homeland Security, to assure his victims that he was a federal employee. 

G. Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Matthew J. DeSarno, Special Agent in Charge of the Criminal Division at the FBI’s Washington Field Office, and Patrick J. Lechleitner, Special Agent in Charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Washington, D.C., made the announcement after sentencing by U.S. District Judge Liam O’Grady. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kimberly R. Pedersen prosecuted the case.

A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Related court documents and information is located on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 1:18-cr-228.