Here's an immigration fraud story with a unique twist: people were apparently paying a Chicago man thousands of dollars to stage armed robberies so they could claim to be a "victim" and apply for a certain kind of visa.
Federal prosecutors say that’s exactly what was happening in a crazy scheme that involved hundreds of faked robberies across the country. And the scam continued until one of those phony holdups turned horrifyingly real and an innocent store clerk ended up being shot.
Parth Nayi, 29, of Woodridge, Illinois, was sentenced Thursday to two years in federal prison and fined $50,000 after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit visa fraud. Prosecutors say Nayi was the chief organizer of the scheme that staged armed robberies at coffee shops, restaurants, liquor stores, and gas stations from 2022 through 2024.
According to the Department of Justice, thousands of people paid Nayi anywhere from $5,000 to $30,000 each to pose as victims of the scam "crimes" so that they could later apply for U visas, which are set aside for foreign nationals who are victims of certain kinds of crimes and who later assist law enforcement.
🚨#SENTENCING Parth Nayi, a suburban Chicago man, has been sentenced to two years in federal prison for conspiring to stage armed robberies so that the purported victims could apply for U.S. immigration visas reserved for crime victims. To read more about this investigation, please visit: https://t.co/EsFnwasRRc The FBI would like to remind you to report any suspected incidents of fraud to the FBI by calling 1-800-CALL-FBI (225-5324) or online at https://t.co/YsyApSvbbb. Tips can remain anonymous. https://t.co/mKF47jJ8qi
— FBI Chicago (@FBIChicago) October 26, 2026
The scheme was pretty straightforward: Nayi would recruit people to pose as robbery victims, arrange the locations of the "robberies" and hire the "robbers." Then, he'd direct the "victims" to report the crimes and use their cooperation with police to support their U-visa applications. Many of the store owners were in on the fraud.
The scam ran smoothly until one of those staged robberies went completely off the rails.
On July 13, 2023, three masked men entered Bucktown Food & Liquor in Chicago and demanded customers and staff turn over their wallets. During the fake holdup, one of the robbers accidentally fired his gun, striking a 26-year-old clerk in the abdomen and critically injuring him, according to CWB Chicago.
In other words, Nayi, in trying to set up a fake crime, actually facilitated a real one.
Prosecutors called Nayi “the main organizer and at the center of almost every single one” of the hundreds of staged robberies. Five others have also been convicted in the federal investigation.