2 Silicon Valley companies owned by Indian Americans have been penalised for violating H1B visa rules

Scopus Consulting Group and Orian Engineers, two companies based in Silicon Valley and owned by an Indian-American have been ordered to pay fines of $103,000 to the federal government. Along with this, the company is required to pay $84,000 in back wages to its employees who are carrying H-1B visas.

Kishore Kumar, the owner of these companies brought workers from India and other countries on H-1B visas to employ them as software engineers for other firms based in Silicon Valley, such as eBay, Apple and Cisco Systems.

While investigating the case, the US Department of Labor Wage and Hour found that both Scopus Consulting Group and Orian Engineers violated the H-1B provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act. As per an official release, they did so by misrepresenting the prevailing wage level on the Labor Condition Applications required by the act. The release also confirmed that both firms have been debarred from H-1B program participation for one year.

Stephen R Henley, in his capacity as the Federal Administrative Law Judge, ordered both companies to pay 21 workers $84,000 in back wages and $103,000 as fines to the federal government.

"Some of the country's most cutting-edge, successful organisations benefit from underpaid H-1B workers," said Susana Blanco, who is the director for the Wage and Hour Division in San Francisco. "H-1B workers must be paid local prevailing wages. We will not allow companies to undercut local wages and hurt US workers and businesses who pay their workers fairly," she continued.

The employers also recruited experienced workers, most of whom have master's degrees, and paid them as entry level employees.

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