Background and inset: YouTube screengrabs of staged armed robbery of a store in Chicago, Ill., and one of the suspects, that occurred in July 2023 (via WBBM).
A half-dozen men accused of faking armed robberies at Dunkin’, Subway and other businesses so they could pull off a scheme applying for a specific type of nonimmigrant visas — typically reserved for genuine victims of crimes who assist prosecutors and investigators — have been indicted.
The criminal indictment filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division was announced by the Justice Department on Friday and names Parth Nayi, 26, Kewon Young, 31, Bhikhabhai Patel, 51, Nilesh, Patel, 32, Ravinaben Patel, 23 and Rajnikumar Patel, 32. The defendants hail from multiple states, including Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Wisconsin and Florida.
Prosecutors say that between July 2022 and January 2024, the defendants conspired with each other to obtain something known as a “nonimmigrant U-Visa” by staging the robberies at various businesses including restaurants, gas stations, liquor stores and elsewhere.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services began granting nonimmigrant U visas under specific conditions in 2000 and, according to the department’s website, the visas are uniquely “set aside for victims of certain crimes who have suffered mental or physical abuse and are helpful to law enforcement or government officials in the investigation or prosecution of criminal activity.”
People paid the men thousands of dollars to participate in the fake robberies and subsequently file phony police reports, according to the recently unsealed indictment. The defendants are also accused of brandishing guns and even striking victims at times to make their robberies appear more authentic.
Nayi and Young are accused of organizing and executing staged robberies at a Subway in Chicago as well as at Subway in Elmwood Park. The staged robberies happened within weeks of each other and continued with the conspirators regularly popping up at Dunkin’ — formerly Dunkin’ Donuts — locations in Chicago a well as at a Tropical Smoothie Cafe in St. Charles, Illinois. The men are also accused of staging a robbery at a BP Gas Station in Hickory Hills, Illinois, and at a liquor store in River Grove, as well as at 7-Eleven stores and a number of other businesses in the Chicago area.
Court records indicate that Dunkin’ in Chicago may have been a preferred target; the indictment shows the defendants staged robberies at those locations more than four times over the span of the alleged scheme.
Prosecutors say the applications from the defendants for U visas came in swiftly after the robberies.
While the robberies may have been staged and the statements on visa application forms allegedly falsified, the consequences of the defendant’s actions were real for innocent people.
One of the staged robberies that took place at a liquor store last July ended up with a 26-year-old clerk being shot, Chicago CBS affiliate WBBM reported on Friday when the indictment was first unsealed.
The conspiracy charges are punishable by a maximum sentence of five years in prison and the false statement charge is punishable by up to 10 years.
This isn’t the first time such a scam has apparently been broken up by investigators. As Law&Crime reported in December 2023, another group were hit with near identical U visa scam charges in Massachusetts.
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