Nurse Employer Led Specialty Visa Fraud Scheme In Woodside: Feds

WOODSIDE, QUEENS -- A Queens business owner faces decades behind bars for allegedly orchestrating a visa fraud scheme to illegally bring dozens of Filipino nurses into the United States for her own profit, federal prosecutors said.

Rena Beduya Avendula, 50, was indicted on several counts of fraud in a Brooklyn federal court on Monday for lying on specialty visa applications for the foreign nurses, who worked on the cheap at her Woodside-based nursing agency that specialized in elderly care, said U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue.

"Avendula engineered a fraud scheme for personal profit by creating fake job positions to deceive a government program that allows a limited number of foreign nationals to enter the United States temporarily to fill highly specialized positions," Donoghue said.

She allegedly created the fake "specialty occupations" at her company Professional Placement & Recruitment Inc. from October 2009 to February 2015 to qualify dozens of foreign nurses for a H-1B Visa that would allow them to work for her in the U.S.

The coveted visa lets foreign employees stay in the U.S. temporarily to work in a "specialty occupation" that requires specialized knowledge and a bachelor's degree at minimum . General registered nurses don't typically qualify for the visa, so a sponsoring U.S. employer must vouch to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigrant Services that they would work in a specialized area of the field and paid appropriately.

Avendula allegedly told the USCIS on her application that she was bringing over employees for specialized nursing jobs at prevailing wage rates when they actually came to work as RNs at "significantly lower rates of pay," in nursing homes and rehabilitation centers, according to the indictment.

In addition to saving money employing nurses at rates well below the requirements, Avendula also profited from the filing fees she collected from the nurses and health care facilities that paid PPRI, the indictment states.

Avendula was arrested Friday and charged with five counts of visa fraud and with conspiring to defraud the United States, commit visa fraud and illegally bring aliens to the United States. She was released after her arraignment on a $75,000 bond.

If convicted, Avendula faces up to 10 years in prison on the visa fraud charges and additional 10 years behind bars for each foreign employee she sponsored in connection with the conspiracy.

(Lead photo via Shutterstock)