Landlord charged: Smuggling aliens


Bob Egelko OF THE EXAMINER STAFF <mailto:sfexaminer@examiner.com>
Oct. 26, 2000
©2000 San Francisco Examiner <http://www.sfgate.com/examiner/>
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Conspiracy charges for Berkeley man and four relatives
Federal prosecutors have charged a Berkeley landlord and four relatives with
conspiring for more than a decade to illegally import immigrants from India,
including a teenager who died of carbon monoxide poisoning in an apartment
last November.
The charges, which were filed Wednesday, expand earlier accusations and
follow Assistant U.S. Attorney John Kennedy's disclosure in a court filing
that Lakireddy Bali Reddy, a brother, two sons and a sister-in-law have
agreed to plead guilty. Kennedy has asked a federal judge to schedule
hearings Monday and Tuesday to enter the guilty pleas.
Reddy, 63, owns about 1,100 apartment units in the East Bay. A 17-year-old
girl, later determined to be pregnant, was found dead in one of the
apartments in November, touching off an investigation that led to the
criminal charges.
Reddy was arrested in January and originally charged with illegally bringing
in the 17-year-old and at least two other teenagers, all from his home
village of Velvadam, so he could have sex with them. He pleaded not guilty
and has been free on $10 million bail.
Prosecutors alleged a broader scheme Wednesday. Reddy and his four relatives
were accused of conspiring between October 1986 and January 2000 to bring
about 30 Indian nationals into the United States by misrepresenting them as
relatives or dependents of U.S. citizens or as skilled workers.
The immigrants were given false identities, went through sham marriages in
some cases and were put to work in Reddy's Pasand Restaurant in Berkeley and
other businesses without being paid legal minimum wages, prosecutors
charged.
Reddy was separately charged with illegally transporting two minors in
August 1999 so he could have sex with them. Reddy was also separately
charged with filing a false tax return for 1998.
The landlord's son, Vijay Kumar Lakireddy, who was also named in the earlier
indictment, was charged Wednesday with helping his father bring both minors
into the United States for immoral purposes.
The other three defendants had not been charged previously. They are Reddy's
son Prasad Lakireddy; Reddy's younger brother, Jayprakash Lakireddy; and the
brother's wife, Annapurna Lakireddy.
All were accused of taking part in the conspiracy by arranging for the
immigrants' fraudulent entry, employing them, and in Annapurna Lakireddy's
case, signing false immigration documents.
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