MANHATTAN (CN) - A labor contractor who sought H-2B visas for 125 Nepalese workers claims a Wall Street firm took his $50,000 but didn't provide the visas. Amod Katwal says Exchanges-USA and the men who run it, Bakhtier Khassanov and Ravhsan Ishnazarov, refused to return his $50,000 deposit - $400 per phantom visa.
Katwal claims the defendants "were aware at the time of execution that they would be unable to perform their obligations," in light of a recent Department of Homeland Security ruling that marked Nepalese nationals "ineligible for H-2B visas in 2009." Nonetheless, Katwal says, they took the $50,000 deposit, failed to inform him of the DHS ruling, and made no effort to refund his money or procure the visas.
He seeks damages for breach of contract and fraud. He is represented in New York County Court by George Hritz with Hogan & Hartson.
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