East Bay Men Plead Guilty in H-1B Visa Fraud Conspiracy

Two East Bay residents have pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiracy to commit H1B visa fraud in a scheme that falsely claimed foreign workers would be employed at the University of California to secure coveted work visas.

Dublin residents Sampath Rajidi, 51, and Sreedhar Mada, 51, entered their guilty pleas on April 17 before US District Judge Troy L. Nunley, US Attorney Eric Grant announced. Rajidi operated two visa servicing companies, S Team Software Inc. and Uptrend Technologies LLC, and submitted fraudulent H1B specialty occupation visa petitions on behalf of foreign workers.

Mada, who served as Chief Information Officer at UC Agriculture and Natural Resources in Davis, lent his name and institutional credibility to bolster the false claims, despite knowing he had no authority to hire H1B workers and that the listed positions did not exist. The two men conspired between June 2020 and January 2023, misrepresenting to US Citizenship and Immigration Services that beneficiaries would work on UC projects, then marketing those workers to other clients instead.

Both defendants face up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine and are scheduled for sentencing on July 30, 2026.