00:00Today we are announcing that we have identified over 10,000 foreign students who claim to be
00:04working for highly suspect employers, and that's just among the top 25 OPT employers. This is only
00:12the tip of the iceberg. Over the past year, we've dramatically expanded our oversight of OPT
00:17and can report that we've found fraud nationwide. HSI agents have visited problematic OPT employer
00:25work sites in Virginia, Texas, Georgia, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Florida.
00:33Many of these employers include NGOs engaged in suspicious activity. We've discovered empty
00:39buildings and locked doors at addresses where hundreds of foreign students are allegedly employed.
00:44In many cases, multiple OPT employers claim to operate from the same address, but none actually
00:50leased the facility. We found small residential addresses listed as work sites for hundreds of
00:56foreign students, yet no employees were present. When someone does answer the door, their statements
01:01are inconsistent, or they claim no knowledge of the business. We're also seeing financial red flags.
01:07Many alleged employers display clear fraud indicators, including tax liens, civil lawsuits,
01:13collections, and breaches of contract. And we are seeing suspicious financial attractions moving
01:17cash across multiple countries. We've discovered that numerous businesses failed to maintain basic
01:23employment records for the foreign students, raising serious tax reporting concerns. Some employers
01:29claim to have offshore human resources and payroll personnel. And finally, we're finding what we call
01:35phantom employees. We've identified foreign students who obtained work authorization documents through OPT,
01:42but never showed up for work at the sites they claimed. While we can't share details of ongoing
01:47investigations, I can assure you that more information is forthcoming and that we are taking this fraud very seriously.
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