An Indian national pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court in Boston to serving as a getaway driver in staged armed robberies of convenience stores and restaurants as part of visa fraud conspiracy.
Balwinder Singh, 41, pleaded guilty to on one count of conspiracy to commit visa fraud, a charge that provides for a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 11, 2025. Singh would be subject to deportation following any sentence imposed.
Singh was first charged in December 2023 along with a co-conspirator in the visa fraud scheme, Rambhai Patel.
According to federal prosecutors, starting in March 2023, Patel and an alleged co-conspirator set up and carried out staged armed robberies of at least nine convenience stores, liquor stores and fast-food restaurants across the country, including at least five in Massachusetts.
The way the visa fraud scheme worked was for the store clerks or owners to use the staged armed robberies as a pretext to claim that they were victims of a violent crime on an application for U non-immigrant status (U Visa).
U Visas are available to victims of certain crimes who have suffered mental or physical abuse and who have been helpful to law enforcement in the investigation or prosecution of criminal activity.
Prosecutors say that during the staged robberies, the “robber” would threaten store clerks or store owners with an apparent firearm before taking cash from the register and fleeing, while the interaction was captured on store surveillance video.
The “victims” of the staged robberies would then wait for the “robbers” to flee before calling authorities. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts said that at least two of the “victims” submitted fraudulent U Visa applications based on the staged robberies.
Singh was charged for serving as the “robber’s” getaway driver in several of these robberies, according to prosecutors.
Patel was alleged to have been paid by the purported “victims” to participate in the visa fraud scheme, with one of the “victims” paying $20,000 for a staged robbery. Patel pleaded guilty earlier this week to one count of conspiracy to commit visa fraud, and is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 20, 2025.
