The Briefing:
- Parth Nayi, 29, of Woodridge, Illinois, was sentenced on October 22 to two years in federal prison and a $50,000 fine by U.S. District Judge Mary M. Rowland — a full year beyond what prosecutors had requested.
- The scheme involved hundreds of staged armed robberies at restaurants, gas stations, and coffee shops across multiple states between 2022 and 2024; participants paid between $5,000 and $30,000 each for a manufactured crime-victim identity, and Nayi reportedly cleared more than $3 million in the process.
- One staged robbery went real when a fake gunman accidentally shot a 26-year-old store employee in the abdomen; five co-conspirators were separately convicted; and federal authorities believe the total pool of fraudulent U-Visa applications tied to the network runs into the thousands.
A suburban Chicago man who built and ran a nationwide staged-robbery network to generate fraudulent U.S. immigration visa claims received a two-year federal prison sentence and a $50,000 fine on October 22, closing out a conspiracy that ran for roughly two years, crossed state lines, and turned genuinely dangerous when one staged holdup ended with a real bullet inside an innocent store worker. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issued its own release on the case on October 28.
The case exposes how a federal program specifically designed to shield actual crime victims was methodically converted into a pay-to-play fraud operation with set prices, rehearsed scripts, and hired talent.
A Fraud Operation Engineered Like a Production Company
Federal prosecutors described Nayi as a full-service crime director. He scouted venues, cut deals with business owners, recruited actors to play robbers, and personally coached every fake victim through their assigned role before each performance. During the staged holdups, the actors brandished what appeared to be real firearms, demanded cash from the manufactured victims, and exited the scene.
The scheme unfolded at Subway restaurants, Dunkin’ locations, a Tropical Smoothie Café in St. Charles, liquor stores, and gas stations across the Chicago metropolitan area and into suburban communities including Lombard, Elmwood Park, Lake Villa, and South Holland. Operations also reached Louisiana and Tennessee…