Detroit News
October 10, 1999
Firm fined for falsified visas
Troy computer company pays $450,000 after feds find 18 Indian workers in town house
By Norman Sinclair / The Detroit News

TROY -- A computer company has been fined $450,000 after federal investigators found it had brought in dozens of immigrants from India under false claims and lodged some in squalid conditions.
The case involves Quality Information Systems Inc. of Troy, which has offices in 21 U.S. cities, and its owner and founder, Subhakar "Sam" Surapaneni of West Bloomfield Township.
The federal government's interest in Surapaneni, 28, and his firm started in November 1997, when he arrived at Metro Airport from the United Kingdom.
U.S. Customs Service agents found $49,200 in cash after Surapaneni said he was carrying $7,000. International travelers must complete disclosure forms if transporting more than $10,000.
The government began investigating Quality last year when a wrongful-discharge lawsuit claimed immigration abuses by the company. The firm, founded in 1995 by the Wayne State University computer science graduate, has 350 employees and 1998 revenues of about $25 million, according to court documents.
An immigration agent said 68 of the firm's workers from India had false information on their visas, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court. None of the workers were performing the jobs specified in their visas and were not receiving the salaries listed. Some were unemployed, agents said.
Federal investigators found 18 people living in a three-bedroom Southfield town house rented by the firm. Each paid the company $600 a month in rent, according to the agents.
"Sleeping arrangements consisted of mattresses on the floor or a type of bed mat made up of blankets and sheets," said agent Bernadette Cundiff of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
In a plea agreement, the firm last week accepted a fine of $450,000 for the 68 fraudulent visas. It also will pay restitution to the displaced immigrants and show the government its financial records.
Surapaneni, who pleaded guilty to making false statements to customs agents, will donate $5,000 to a local charity designated by the U.S. attorney's office. He still could draw a prison term at sentencing.