IACC Removed from Mission India Business Executive Program

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 NEW DELHI 000414

SIPDIS

CA/FPP FOR JILL NYSTROM
DS/CR/OCI FOR GALEN NACE
DS/CR/CFI FOR DAVE BRACKINS
DS/CR/VPAU FOR TIM LONGANACRE AND YVETTE COLMAN

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KFRD CVIS CMGT ASEC ECON EFIN IN
SUBJECT: IACC Removed from Mission India Business Executive Program

REF: A) 08 CHENNAI 382, B) 08 KOLKATA 291


1. Summary. After uncovering a series of fraudulent visa cases and
unqualified applicants directly supported by the Indo-American
Chamber of Commerce (IACC),Mission India has removed the IACC from
its visa facilitation Business Executive Program (BEP). In FY-2007
and FY-2008, the refusal rate for IACC BEP applicants was over
eleven percent, and five applicants overstayed their visas. End
Summary.

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Fraud Uncovered
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2. On October 31, 2008, the purported Vice President of Maxwell
Industries admitted during a fraud interview at Consulate General
Chennai that he had purchased a complete package of fraudulent
supporting documents from a vendor in Hyderabad. According to the
applicant, Maxwell Industries did not exist. Included in that
package was a genuine letter of support from the regional director
of IACC in New Delhi confirming that the applicant and his
fictitious company were official members of IACC's delegation to
attend the Pack Expo in Chicago, IL.


3. Chennai's Fraud Prevention Unit (FPU) investigated the
applicant's claims and identified several other companies linked to
the same business address. Entry/exit checks for three other
Maxwell Industries representatives, who attended the 2007 Pack Expo
on an FCS-organized foreign buyer delegation and whose members were
recruited and vetted by the IACC in South India, confirmed that none
of the representatives returned to India. A/RSO-I Chennai opened an
official investigation, and the Fraud Prevention Manager alerted
adjudicating officers to closely scrutinize cases with IACC sponsor
letters.


4. Three days later, Chennai intercepted four cooks working for the
South Indian restaurant chain Saravana Bhavan with IACC letters
touting the quartet as "senior level executives" to attend the Pack
Expo. Another ADIS check confirmed that three previous
IACC-sponsored, Pack Expo-attending Saravana Bhavan managers stayed
nearly twelve months in the U.S. on tourist visas before converting
to L-1A status. The full report of that case, the arrest of the
Saravana Bhavan CEO for human trafficking, and the resulting media
onslaught are reported ref A.

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Abuse of the BEP Program
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5. Mission India's Business Executive Program (BEP) is designed to
facilitate business travel in support of U.S. commerce abroad. The
BEP enables large firms with a high volume of travel to the United
States to access a priority visa appointment calendar and allows for
expedited processing of applicants on the day of the appointment.
Many BEP Members are U.S. Fortune 500 companies. IACC joined the
BEP program in 2005.


6. Mission India recently conducted a validation study of BEP B1/B2
applicants for FY-2007 (ref B) and found a Mission-wide overstay
rate of less than one quarter of one percent. BEP members are
vetted thoroughly throughout the Mission before they can join the
program, and overstay and refusal rates for BEP members are expected
to be negligible. Using the case tags linked to IACC BEP
appointment accounts, Post confirmed, with assistance from CCD
AdHoc, that the IACC refusal rate in New Delhi and Chennai during
the last two fiscal years was over eleven percent.


7. A close analysis of those refusals reflected a quality of
applicant that fell far short of what was expected for BEP members.
In New Delhi, over half of the refusals were for young single men
with no previous travel working at jewelry, rug or handicraft
companies to attend trade shows. Several had multiple refusals. In
Chennai, Post recently returned to DHS for revocation several H-1B
petitions of IACC-member companies for petitioner fraud. Divihn
Integration, which is partially owned by Lancesoft, provided an
applicant with a fraudulent client letter. IACC-member Tekstrom
also provided a fraudulent client letter. Post has returned nearly
40 Tekstrom petitions for revocation in the last three years. An
applicant from Altech Star submitted completely fraudulent work
experience from Cognizant.


8. IACC showed no accountability for its applicants, and no
incentive to do so. In its advertising literature, IACC recruited
new members by actively promoting membership in the BEP to "enhance
the credibility of the visa applicants" and stated that the "BEP

NEW DELHI 00000414 002 OF 002


facility is available to all IACC member companies." Essentially,
all IACC members automatically obtained BEP status without
undergoing the extensive vetting of BEP members. Several IACC
applicants, including the CEO for Saravana Bhavan, confirmed that
IACC charged them to obtain an IACC BEP appointment.

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Validation Study Results
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9. Given the low confidence in IACC applicants following this
analysis, Mission India conducted a 100 percent validation study of
IACC BEP applicants for FY-2007 and FY-2008 using CCD AdHoc reports
and US-VISIT ADIS checks. Of the 1,084 applicants in the study,
only five appear to have overstayed their visas. One hundred and
fifteen individuals are in the United States in legal status, and
964 used their visa appropriately and returned to India. The five
overstays have no departure records, and Post has been unable to
contact the applicants via phone calls to their purported places of
employment and residence. Post will report those individuals
septel.

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The Aftermath
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10. Based on the low credibility of IACC applicants and increasing
concerns of lack of vetting by the IACC, Mission India removed IACC
from the BEP program effective January 1, 2009. Despite this
action, Mission India acknowledges the otherwise positive work that
the IACC does on behalf of U.S.-India commercial relations and will
continue to work with IACC on non-visa issues. Employees of IACC
member companies can still apply for U.S. visas but must do so
through the regular visa appointment system.

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