Foreign national from India overstays his non-immigrant visa, entered into a fraudulent marriage and operated an immigration marriage fraud business in Bay County, Florida. According to the statement of facts he recruited female U.S. citizens to marry Indian foreign national visa-overstays in exchange for payment.
From the U.S. Attorneys Office, Northern District of Florida:
Panama City Marriage Fraud Defendant Sentenced to 7 Years
PANAMA CITY, FLORIDA – Ravi Babu Kolla, 47, an Indian foreign national residing in Panama City, was sentenced to 84 months in prison for conspiracy to commit marriage and visa fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The sentence was announced by Lawrence Keefe, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida.
Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Panama City received information from the Bay County Sheriff’s Office during November 2017 that an unusually large number of marriages were occurring in rural Alabama counties. The marriages almost always involved male Indian nationals from throughout the United States and local women from Bay County, Florida. The evidence established that Kolla organized over 80 fraudulent marriages, and the majority of the Indian nationals involved had overstayed their visas or Student Exchange Visitor Program requirements and were unlawfully present in the United States. Each bride was to be paid $12,000 over a defined period for agreeing to participate in a fraudulent marriage.
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