Around 300 individuals have fallen prey to a massive fraud amounting to crores of rupees, after being promised lucrative nursing jobs in the US. Among them, 40 candidates from Kollam district were assured nursing assistant positions in Virginia, USA, but ended up registering complaints claiming they were swindled of Rs 60 lakh.
The accused in this case are James Raj, a retired Kerala Government employee who held significant posts at the Secretariat, and Joseph Daniel, the Managing Director of Edufuturistic Learning Pvt Ltd based in Anna Nagar, Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
The duped job seekers revealed how the scam unfolded during a media interaction. In January 2022, they enrolled in a four-week online Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) course conducted by the Unitatis Universitas Salvatoris (Savior Unity University), with the promise of receiving EB3 visas within six months. The course fees were transferred to Joseph Daniel’s firm’s bank account, given its purported affiliation with the university. Around 300 students from Kerala took the exam in different batches between January and June 2022, with each student paying amounts ranging from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh.
However, the promised EB3 visas were later replaced with visiting visas, and an additional Rs 1,50,000 was collected from each candidate under the pretext of securing a visa interview date. Some candidates faced suspicion during the visa interview, leading to their visas being canceled. Shockingly, Joseph Daniel allegedly advised one candidate to enter the US illegally from the African country of Burundi after failing the visa interview.
Bincy Thomas, John Britto Justin, Bijo Joseph, A Melbin, and Dixon, representatives of the cheated job seekers, lodged complaints with various authorities, including the Chief Minister’s Office, NRI cell of the Kerala Director General of Police’s office, NORKA, Member of Parliament, Kollam, Kollam Police Commissioner’s Office, and Chavara police station. A case was registered at Chavara police station on July 16 following a directive from the Chief Minister’s Office.
The complainants received an email stating that the amount would be refunded from July 27, and a lawyer from Kozhikode was allegedly entrusted with the task. However, the lawyer later denied receiving any direction from the agency or any money. The situation remains unresolved, leaving many victims devastated and seeking justice.
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