The owner of a healthcare staffing firm in New York was indicted on charges of visa fraud; separately, a fake nurse discovered by a healthcare staffing firm in California faces new felony charges.

Visa allegations

A federal grand jury in Brooklyn indicted the owner and managing executive of Professional Placement & Recruitment Inc., a Woodside, NY-based medical employment agency, charging her in a visa fraud scheme, the US Attorney’s Office announced.

The indictment alleges Rena Beduya Avendula from October 2009 to February 2015 brought Filipino citizens into the US illegally by fraudulently claiming they would be employed in “specialty occupations,” thereby qualifying for H-1B visas. Avendula allegedly stated that foreign nurses would be working in specialized nursing at prevailing wage rates, when in fact they were going to work as licensed practical nurses or RNs at significantly lower rates of pay, mostly at nursing homes and rehabilitation centers. Registered nurses typically do not qualify as beneficiaries for H-1B visas. 

Avendula was arrested Friday, arraigned before US Magistrate Judge Ramon E. Reyes, Jr., and released on a $75,000 bond. She is charged with five counts of visa fraud and with conspiring to defraud the US, commit visa fraud and illegally bring aliens into the US. If convicted, Avendula faces a statutory maximum of 10 years’ imprisonment for the visa fraud charges, and 10 years’ imprisonment for each foreign national she induced to reside in the US in connection with the visa fraud conspiracy.

New charges for fake nurse

The California Attorney General’s office filed 11 new felony charges against a man who falsely claimed to be a nurse in a bid to gain employment via a travel healthcare staffing firm.

Jeremy Daniel Griffin, of West Hollywood, Calif., was arrested last year. The California Department of Consumer Affairs noted that Griffin was discovered by a staffing firm after his documentation raised a red flag.

Griffin previously pleaded no contest to similar charges in Santa Clara County Court. New charges filed against Griffin include two counts of identity theft, false impersonation, three counts of grand theft, two counts of burglary, and elder or dependent adult abuse. Griffin was also charged with two misdemeanors for using the registered nurse title and practicing, or offering to practice, as a registered nurse.

The Attorney General’s office reported that Griffin presented false documents in a registered nurse’s name to get a travel nursing job. However, he did not hold a license as a registered nurse. He did hold a license as a vocational nurse, but that was revoked in 2014 after he was convicted of receiving stolen property.