To read more, please go to http://articles.philly.com/2015-03-19/news/60254438_1_shell-companies-h-1b-visas

At first blush, Upani Consultants of Chester County appeared to be a group of ambitious workers, mostly from India, who came to the United States on specialty visas to be employed as quality-assurance analysts and software engineers in information technology.

But in fact, according to the guilty plea by Sudhakar Majety in federal court in Philadelphia late last year, the company he created a decade ago in Phoenixville ultimately exploited the H-1B “specialty occupation” visa program by using shell companies and sham contracts to give the impression that Upani needed staff.

When the workers arrived here, according to the indictment, they learned that Upani had no positions and were forced to search for jobs elsewhere.

Majety, 46, of Spring City, Chester County, typically charged each worker about $4,000 for the visa and kept 20 percent of any money the worker earned. Workers who could not find employment had to pay him extra to keep their visas active.

“Worst employers ever. . . . Everything fake,” a burned employee posted anonymously in 2012 on the website Glassdoor, which has online reviews of IT companies.

“You will end up cheated,” another reviewer wrote.