Chicago-Area Man Sentenced to Two Years in Prison for Fake Robbery Immigration Scam

A "suburban Chicago man has been sentenced to two years in federal prison" for staging hundreds of fake robberies aimed at bolstering immigrants' cases to receive visas for the US, according to US Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois.

The Details: Parth Nayi, a 29-year-old of Woodridge, Illinois, led a nationwide scheme that staged hundreds of fake robberies against businesses and individuals from 2022 to 2024. He paid off store owners, hired fake robbers, and coached thousands of immigrants – who generally paid between $5,000 and $30,000 – to act as victims during these staged crimes. The "victims" then filed false police reports and fraudulent applications for U-visas, a temporary residence status for foreigners who are crime victims and assist law enforcement. According to The Chicago Tribune (Center bias), Nayi profited over $3 million from the operation.

The Sentence: Nayi pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit visa fraud. Though prosecutors suggested a one-year sentence, US District Judge Mary Rowland sentenced Nayi last week to two years in prison and fined him $50,000. Rowland said Nayi showed little remorse in court. He reportedly testified at the trial of his co-defendant and said he wished he knew about the U-visa program when his parents were robbed a decade ago because he "would have started doing this back then and I could have made millions more." According to The Tribune, six were indicted in the scheme, and three others "have already been sentenced to terms ranging from probation to time served."

For Context: In 2025, a similar scheme was discovered in Louisiana and had reportedly gone on for nearly a decade, according to the US Attorney's Office for the Western District of Louisiana.

Media Split: The story was not the most covered by mainstream outlets, though some outlets covered the story in 2024 when Nayi and the others were accused. The Chicago Tribune emphasized in its headline and lead that the sentence was a year longer than prosecutors recommended, while Breitbart (Right) and Blaze Media (Right) suggested it was too short a sentence.

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