[ CRIME BEAT ]

US files suit against Alabama company for 'abusing' Indian workers

Amarine service company Signal Intl based in Alabama is facing a lawsuit by the US federal authorities for alleged demeaning treatment of 500 Indian employees, who were forced to live in "substandard" accommodations and given "unwholesome" food, report agencies. The lawsuit was filed by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) against Signal International. It said these Indian workers, brought into the country by a separate entity which is not part of the case, were forced to live in substandard, unsanitary accommodations.

Protesting workers marching to the Signal International Shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi

For this, they were charged an inordinate amount, given unwholesome food, demeaned by being referred to by numbers instead of their names, and at least two of them were retaliated against for complaining about the substandard conditions and discrimination, the EEOC said.

The Southern Poverty Law Centre (SPLC), American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Louisiana Justice Institute and the law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP have a class action lawsuit pending against the same company on behalf of the same former guest workers.

The EEOC’s lawsuit against Signal charges that the company discriminated against hundreds of Indian guest workers lured into forced labor in Pascagoula, Mississippi and Orange, Texas.

It alleges that Signal violated the rights of the Indian guest workers under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Signal, a marine and fabrication company with shipyards in Mississippi, Texas and Alabama, is a subcontractor for several major multi-national firms. After hurricane Katrina scattered its workforce, Signal used the US government's guest worker program to import employees to work as welders and pipefitters, the ACLU said.

Between 2004 and 2006, hundreds of Indian men paid Signal's recruiters as much as USD 20,000 for travel, visa, recruitment and other fees after they were told it would lead to good jobs, green cards and permanent US residency. Many of the workers sold their houses and other valuables and took out high-interest loans to come up with the money, the ACLU said. When the men arrived at Signal in late 2006 and early 2007, they discovered that they would not receive the green cards as promised, but rather 10-month guest worker visas.

"Signal forced them to pay USD 1,050 a month to live in crowded company housing in isolated, fenced labor camps where as many as 24 men shared a trailer with only two toilets," the ACLU said. Signal officials have denied any wrong doings.

NRI pleads guilty in naval kickback scheme

ASFT Headquarters

The founder and president of a technology services company with offices in Rhode Island and Georgia has agreed to plead guilty in U.S. District Court in Providence to bribery of a public official in connection with an alleged kickback scheme of more than $9 million of naval funds. US Attorney Peter F. Neronha announced that Anjan Dutta- Gupta, 58, of Roswell, GA, founder and president of Advanced Solutions for Tomorrow (ASFT), has agreed to plead guilty to paying bribes to Ralph Mariano, 52, of Arlington, VA, a civilian program manager and senior systems engineer with the US Navy’s Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA). Marino maintained offices in Newport, R.I. and Washington, D.C. Dutta-Gupta was arrested on February 8, 2011, by U.S. Customs agents in Atlanta as he entered the country on a return trip from Chile and was released on a $25,000 unsecured bond following appearances in U.S. District Courts in Atlanta and Providence. He is scheduled to be sentenced by US District Court Chief Judge Mary Lisi on December 9, 2011. From about 1996 through January 2011, at least $8,000,000 was paid by ASFT (largely through its subcontractors) to Marino, to Mariano’s family members and to a senior vice president, director of strategic planning, at ASFT. In addition, at least $1,200,000 was paid to subcontractors based on inflated invoices was funneled back to SIC, a corporation owned by Dutta-Gupta.

Anjan Dutta Gupta on way to court

According to court documents, in exchange for Dutta-Gupta and ASFT’s kickbacks, Mariano took steps to ensure that ASFT received payment on invoices submitted, and that additional funds were added to existing ASFT contracts when needed. In his position as program manager, Mariano regularly instructed Navy contracting officers to add funding to ASFT contracts and delivery orders.

Mariano also completed numerous Funding Certification forms when he added funds to the ASFT contracts. Through these and other mechanisms, Mariano was able to utilize his position as a program manager with the Naval Undersea Warfare Center to add millions of dollars to existing ASFT contracts. In exchange, defendant Dutta-Gupta agreed to make regular payments to Mariano. Ralph Mariano, charged in a criminal complaint in February 2011 with participating in the alleged kickback scheme, is awaiting trial and remains free on a $50,000 unsecured bond. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Lee H. Vilker and Andrew J. Reich. Dutta- Gupta aces up to 15 years in prison and a fine of USD 250,000 or three times the value of the bribe payments.

Indian American pleads guilty to defraud US tax authorities

An Indian-American businessman has pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud US tax authorities by hiding his bank accounts in HSBC India, a case which has led US Internal Revenue Service to probe NRIs holding accounts in the bank.

Vaibhav Dahake, 44 of Somerset, New Jersey pleaded guilty before US District Judge Freda Wolfson to an indictment charging him with one count of conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and concealing undeclared bank accounts in India, a statement by the US Attorney's Office, District of New Jersey said. Dahake, who was indicted in January this year, is scheduled to be sentenced on July 22, 2011. He faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $ 250,000 fine, or twice the amount of financial gain accrued to him or loss to the IRS. Additionally, Dahake has agreed to pay a 50 per cent civil penalty for failing to file reports of foreign bank or financial account relating to his undeclared bank accounts for the calendar years 2004-2009, during which the accounts had the highest balance.

Indian American couple plead guilty to selling counterfeit drugs in US

An Indian American husband and wife from Closter, N.J., admitted on May 16, 2011 to selling counterfeit prescription drugs manufactured in India to customers in the United States, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Nita Patel, 47, and her husband, Harshad Patel, 53, an Indian national, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Joseph E. Irenas to one count of unlicensed distribution of pharmaceuticals. A third individual, Moloy Ghosh, 31, of India, pleaded guilty before Judge Irenas on December 15, 2010, and was sentenced by Judge Irenas on March 22, 2011, to eight months in prison. Nita Patel, Harshad Patel, and Ghosh were all previously arrested and charged by complaint on April 2, 2010.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in Camden federal court: Nita Patel offered "generic" forms of patented pharmaceutical products for sale over the Internet, the source of which was an Indian company. When contacted by an undercover law enforcement officer, Nita Patel provided a price list of products offering for sale "Generic Viagra," "Generic Cialis," and "Generic Levitra," each of which is a patent-protected erectile dysfunction drug manufactured in the Untied States.

It was in February 2009 that the FBI became aware that Nita Patel was offering generic forms of patented pharmaceutical products for sale over the Internet, United States Attorney Paul J Fishman said.

Over the course of several months, Nita Patel and her husband negotiated with an undercover officer for the sale of more than 300,000 tablets of counterfeit drugs, including the erectile dysfunction drugs, as well as counterfeit versions of Abilify (a drug used for the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder), Lexapro (a drug used for the treatment of depression), and Plavix (a drug used as an anti-coagulant). All of the counterfeit drugs were shipped from Ghosh’s business in India, where Ghosh lived and worked before traveling to the United States on a business visa on April 2, 2010—the day before he was arrested. Ghosh and Nita Patel used fictitious names on Customs Declaration forms in order to avoid detection.

Had the drugs the defendants sold to the undercover law enforcement officer been authentic, they would have had a wholesale acquisition cost of more than $2.5 million. The tablets designed to mimic the appearance of the legitimate drugs were not tested or approved by the FDA for distribution in the United States, and had labels that did not contain required safety warnings.

Under federal law, it is illegal to distribute wholesale quantities of pharmaceuticals without a license to do so. Neither the Patels nor Ghosh had such a license in the State of New Jersey.

The charge to which Nita and Harshad Patel pleaded guilty carries a maximum potential penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense. Sentencing is currently scheduled for August 23, 2011.

According to CBS News, many of these fakes were so sophisticated that even investigators at an FDA lab in Cincinnati couldn't distinguish which bottle of Zyprexa was fake with the naked eye. Using a forensic light source, they can test the ink - the label that lights up is the real one. A fake Lipitor pill looked so authentic they had to superimpose a diagram of an actual pill to see that the number "20" on the pill did not match up. "With the naked eye, you could not see this," a lab technician pointed out.

Workers at two Indian eateries in US get $95,000 in back pay

Employees of two Indian eateries in California recovered nearly $95,000 in back wages following an investigation by US labor regulators revealing they were not being paid the minimum wage, a media report said. The 22 employees of Jay Bharat Foods Inc., doing business as Jay Bharat; and Standard Foods LLC, doing business as Standard Sweets and Snacks in Artesia, were determined to have been forced to work an average of 55 hours a week, local Cerritos-Artesia reported.

They were paid "straight time" wages, rather than the required time and one-half their regular rate of pay for hours worked in excess of 40 per week in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), according to the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division. Both eateries are located in Pioneer Boulevard's Little India and are owned by India-born Chandra ant Patel.

"It is against the law to not pay workers at least the minimum wage," said Priscilla Garcia, director of the division's West Covina office.

Investigators also determined that the owner was in violation of the FLSA record-keeping provisions by not keeping accurate records of employee work hours and wages, Garcia said.

After conducting employee interviews and reviewing payroll records, investigators determined that Jay Bharat owed a total of $41,428 in minimum wage and overtime back wages to 12 employees, and Standard Sweets and Snacks owed $53,442 in minimum wage and overtime back wages to 10 employees. Patel agreed to pay all back wages due to the employees and committed to maintaining future compliance with federal minimum wage, overtime and record-keeping requirements. In California, minimum wage is $8/hour.

Candlelight vigil held for slain Indian American Pharmacist

A portrait of Arjun Dyapa Reddy and his wife

Family and friends organized a candle light vigil at Albert palace in New Jersey on May 14, 201, for Arjun Reddy Dyapa an Indian American who was shot dead at his own pharmacy on April 29th by an unidentified gunman. Arjun Reddy, 52, a native of Jadcherala village in Mehboobnagar district of AP, was shot dead allegedly, by a black teenager after he refused to give him medicine without a valid prescription. He was shot in the chest and brought dead to Capital Health Regional Medical Centre across the pharmacy around 6.30 pm local time. According to eye witnesses, a teenage African-American with dreadlocks showed up at the counter and demanded a prescription medicine without producing valid prescription issued by a physician. The police have taken the video camera recordings and are confident of nabbing the criminal very soon.

Arjun Reddy, who is survived by wife Geetha and a 16-yearold daughter, was an active community activist and one of the founders of North American Telugu Association (NATA) and also a senior leader of American Telugu Association (ATA). He was also involved with several social and cultural organizations in New Jersey.

Steve Ettman, who owns Westside Pharmacy on Hermitage Avenue, said he was "absolutely shocked" by the news. He is offering a USD 1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killer. "This could happen to any of us and Reddy was a nice guy, ever helpful," he said. The shocked Indian- American community leaders gathered at the hospital to console the family and assist in the identification of the culprit.

- [ BY GAURI KUMAR ]