Telugu techie sentenced to 6-month jail in university fraud

Phanideep Karnati, a US-based software professional has been sentenced to six-month imprisonment for recruiting students to fake Farmington University, set up by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Phanideep had pursued engineering in Hyderabad and moved to the US eleven years ago and is one of the eight people who committed the fraud. He said that he was unaware that it was a fake university and thought it was legitimate by looking after government advertisements on the site.

Besides, Phanideep, the US court has already awarded punishments to the remaining seven in January 2019. While Phanideep was given the punishment on Wednesday. The court asked the authorities to deport Phanideep to India after the imprisonment.

Around 39 students were recruited to the fake university and over 600 students from various countries had enrolled in the university. The University of Farmington has been set up by the ICE to bust fake visa fraud.