In May, a senior official in Gov. Kathy Hochul's administration warned state agency leaders about suspected fraud involving hourly computer programmers
By Brendan J. Lyons, Managing EditorDec 15, 2024
Building 5 of the Harriman Campus, which houses the New York State Office of Information Technology Services. (Michael P. Farrell/Times Union)
ALBANY — Dozens of computer programming consultants hired by state agencies on the basis of fraudulent residency documents or fabricated resumes may represent a wider national issue in which private technology companies are securing lucrative government contracts through deceptive practices.
Interviews with law enforcement sources and individuals who work in the industry indicate the fake backgrounds of the workers — who are often paid higher hourly rates based on their doctored education and work experience — are often assembled in other nations where it is more difficult for U.S. government agencies to verify the information.
The Times Union reported in November that hundreds of migrants working for New York government agencies as computer programming consultants have been the focus of a slow-moving state and federal criminal investigation after it was discovered many of them allegedly have forged residency documents or fictitious professional biographies.
Ravi Lothumalla, a Texas-based expert in college admissions who also does technology sector recruitment and job placements, said that in his more than 30 years in the industry he has witnessed widespread fraud, especially involving candidates from India. Lothumalla, who regularly recruits prospective students and workers from overseas, said their educational and work experience is often fabricated and some applicants may have someone else pose as them for an interview.
The workers themselves “don’t know ABC of the technologies ... and it’s somebody impersonating and taking the interviews,” Lothumalla said. “And these interviews are taken from India. So the call comes to them, and the call is forwarded to somebody in India, or even in the U.S.”
Lothumalla and another person who owns a New York computer software programming company that has done contract work for state government agencies — and spoke on the condition of not being identified — said that it’s common for the programmers employed by private vendors to not even do the work. Instead, they said, those programmers may have someone who is located elsewhere in the U.S. — or in India — doing their work remotely while the person is sitting in a state government office.
The companies that employ those individuals, they said, often take a larger cut of the hourly workers' salary than is reported to the government agencies they work for. And the practice dates back years.
In 2019, an Indian management consulting firm based in Chicago paid a $2.5 million penalty as part of a global settlement for visa fraud and inducing aliens to enter and remain in the U.S. illegally. That case, which was headed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, included allegations that the company had instructed the workers how to avoid detection and paid them India-based wages, which were substantially lower than what they should have received.
Six years earlier, Infosys Limited, an Indian company involved in consulting, technology and outsourcing, agreed to a record $34 million civil settlement to resolve allegations of systemic visa fraud and abuse of immigration processes in a similar scheme investigated by federal authorities in Texas. The company had been accused of concealing that migrant visitors had obtained work visas under false pretenses and were performing jobs that were required to be performed by U.S. citizens or legitimate H-1B visa holders.
Four months ago, Lakshmikanth Sripuram was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Albany to a year of probation and fined $10,000 for his guilty plea to wire fraud conspiracy in connection with a years-long scheme involving the falsification of work histories of computer programmers who were hired for a special project with the state comptroller’s office. Late last month, the judge amended his sentence to include a requirement that he pay $350,000 in restitution.
Sripuram, a 37-year-old citizen of India, admitted to conspiring with a former employee of the comptroller’s office, Srinivas Kancha, who allegedly received kickbacks when he subsequently interviewed and hired the programmers, and also set their salaries. A federal criminal complaint alleges Kancha, a 56-year-old Selkirk resident, knew the computer programmers had falsified qualifications and that they had been provided the questions they would be asked by him in their job interviews.
Kancha was charged in January 2021 with conspiracy to commit mail fraud. He has not been indicted and his case remains pending in U.S. District Court in Albany nearly four years later.
Sripuram's foreign passport was subsequently turned over to U.S. immigration authorities. According to court filings, he is fighting to remain in the United States, and his attorney recently pleaded with immigration authorities to revive his green card application.
Sripuram’s company, PIntegra, was one of three firms that were under contract to provide computer programmers to state agencies. The state comptroller’s office hired 17 of the programmers for a massive project involving the state retirement system; they were paid hourly rates ranging from $80 to $120. PIntegra received about $870,000 from the state comptroller’s office under the contract, with Sripuram keeping a percentage of the programmers' pay.
'Just pay them the money'
Lothumalla, who is based in Dallas, said that aptitude test results for prospective students are often faked. Once they are accepted into U.S. colleges, he added, they may also pay someone up to $400 to take their written exams so they receive higher grades. He said bank statements, employment experience letters, pay stubs and college transcripts are routinely fabricated.“A bachelor's degree can be bought in India by paying $8,000; no need to attend school in some of the places, just pay them the money and they get you the degree,” he said.
New York officials are aware that some of the vendors under contract with state agencies may have employees whose backgrounds and immigration documents have been forged. The confidential source who owns a computer programming technology company told the Times Union in a series of recent interviews that the fraud involving many of those vendors dates back more than a decade — to the beginning of the state program that has outsourced that type of work.
In 2013, a commission established by former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s administration issued a 150-page report analyzing a comprehensive reorganization of state government that included recommendations for downsizing the state workforce. The Spending and Government Efficiency (SAGE) Commission had noted there was a network of agencies and public authorities with overlapping jurisdictions that “has resulted in the unnecessary expenditure of taxpayers' money and an ineffective delivery of necessary services.
Although it was not a direct offshoot of the SAGE Commission’s work, Cuomo’s administration launched the program to contract with more than two dozen technology companies that could provide various services for state agencies, as well as for public authorities and local governments across New York. The Hourly Based IT Services (HBITS) program remains active, and the vendors have government contracts collectively valued at tens of millions of dollars.
Some state officials have quietly complained about the use of private hourly workers — especially those who may be in the U.S. temporarily. Those jobs, they said, should be going to New York residents and the state should be investing in training younger workers, including recent college graduates, to do the computer programming work, according to two state officials familiar with the situation but not authorized to comment publicly.
A spokeswoman for the Office of General Services, which oversees the technology contract program, said that since its inception the program has employed more than 7,700 hourly workers. As of last month, more than 1,100 of those workers were actively employed at state agencies.
In May, Gregory Anderson, the governor’s deputy director of state operations, sent a memo to various agencies notifying them that the inspector general’s office had identified “cases where individuals assigned to agencies under the HBITS contract have included fraudulent qualifications or backgrounds in their applications for employment and placement.”
Anderson’s memorandum, which was shared with the Times Union by a confidential source, notified agency officials that they were “responsible for ensuring that all individuals placed under the HBITS contract are vetted, including ensuring that references are checked and that individuals meet required qualifications for placement.”
He also instructed agency officials to review the documentation of hourly workers they have hired through contracts with private consulting companies, including driver’s licenses and passports, as well as their resumes. In addition, he recommended checking with their supervisors to confirm that their job skills reflect the professional experience listed on their resumes.
But it’s unclear whether any employees or vendors have been terminated or had contracts revoked as a result of Anderson’s directive. A spokeswoman for the Office of General Services, which oversees the HBITS contracts, did not immediately respond to questions about the matter on Friday.
'Not something we check'
Lothumalla, the Texas recruiter, said the fraud involving migrant computer programmers and other technology workers often involves faked driver’s licenses, work visas and passports.In New York agencies, some of the workers are in positions in which they may have access to sensitive information as well as the personal identifiable information of both government workers and state residents and businesses, sources said.
The criminal investigation, which a federal law enforcement source said appears to have stalled, is being conducted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the state inspector general’s office, whose investigators previously consulted with the U.S. attorney’s office in Albany about the case, according to sources briefed on the matter.
The governor’s office memo warning state agency leaders about the alleged fraud six months ago had cautioned them to pay particular attention to hourly workers placed by Greycell Labs, Inc., an information technology firm with offices in Edison, New Jersey, and Gujarat, India.
Greycell Labs has more than 75 contracts worth $27 million with numerous state agencies in New York, including the Department of Financial Services, Department of Health, Office of Information Technology Services, attorney general’s office, State Police, Education Department, Public Service Commission and Department of Labor. As of Friday, Greycell Labs remained on the state’s list of approved vendors. The company did not respond to a request for comment.
It’s unclear how well state agencies can vet consultants employed by private vendors. State agencies do not have direct access to federal immigration databases that are the only way to check the residency status of migrant workers.
Two people familiar with the matter said that the inspector general’s office had recently turned over the names of more than 1,200 programming consultants to federal immigration authorities, who during a preliminary review found that many of them had forged green cards or fraudulent visa receipts.
“Immigration status is not something we check,” Scott Reif, a spokesman for the state Office of Information Technology Services, told the Times Union last month. “It would be up to the vendor to make sure they were authorized to work in the U.S.”
Officials with the Office of General Services have not responded to questions about whether the agency conducts any vetting of the hourly employees before they go to work for state agencies or local municipalities and school districts.
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