Infosys accused of VISA fraud in United States

Indian IT major Infosys has been reported to have abused the VISA policies in United States.As per a report, Infosys tried to increase ts profit margins by,
1. Allegedly sending  Indian workers  to US under with wrong type of VISA
2. Not Paying foreign workers at par of US market rate.

Infosys could just have easily found local IT specialists to do what they were bringing foreigners in to do, at a fraction of the cost, Jay Palmer, a consultant for the firm was quoted as saying by CBS.

infosys

Infosys said in a statement televised by CBS that Palmer’s “allegations make for an interesting story, but it is not the facts.”

A judge and jury will have the final say on Palmer’s accusations later this summer in an Alabama civil court case, it added.

Palmer told CBS the first thing to catch his attention was an employee that had been in the US from India several times before.

He then began digging into how and why Infosys seemed to be bringing in large numbers of workers from its corporate headquarters in Bangalore into the US.

Palmer alleged the Indian workers on his team were paid substantially less than an American would have made in the same job.

When the US State Department began to limit the number of H-1B visas, Palmer said Infosys began using another type of visa, the B-1.

The B-1 is meant for employees who are travelling to consult with associates, attend training or a convention. But Palmer said the employees were brought in not for meetings, but for full time jobs.

Meanwhile, Infosys has  declared 440 percent final dividend of Rs.22 per share for fiscal 2011-12. The par value of its Share was Rs 5.

In a regulatory filing Friday, the IT bellwether said its board of directors had also recommended a special dividend of Rs.10 per share or 200 percent for its back office operations (business process outsourcing) completing 10 years.

Earlier, the blue chip company gave an interim dividend of Rs.15 per share or 300 percent in October 2011 for the first half (April-Sept) of fiscal 2012.

As a result, total dividend for the fiscal under review (2011-12) is Rs.37 per share or 740 percent. With a special dividend of Rs.10 or 200 percent, the overall payout for each investor will be a whopping Rs.47 per share of Rs.5 on par or 940 percent.

The company’s scrip was quoting at Rs.2,498 on the Bombay Stock Exchange in the early hours of trading as against Wednesday’s closing rate of Rs.2,750 and opening rate of Rs.2,540.