Air Force office startsWSU probe
Special Investigations group looks at issues involving H-1B visas.
The Air Force Office of Special Investigations is looking into Wright StateUniversity for issues related to H-1B visa fraud that may have occurred at the school.
The university’s board of trustees on Friday approved awaiver of attorney-client privilege toallow the Air Force office to access an internal audit.
The probe makes the Air Force Officeof Special Investigations the fifth agency investigatingWright State for matters related to possible H-1B visa fraud. WSU has already provided the material to the U.S. Attorney’s office, the Ohio Attorney General’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the Ohio inspector general and the Ohio auditor.
The AFOSI will be granted access to the same set of materials provided to the Ohio Attorney General’s Bureau of Criminal Investigations, according to a board document.
The Air Force Office of Special Investigations investigates espionage, terrorism, crimes against property, violence against people, larceny, computer hacking, acquisition fraud, drug use and distribution, financial misdeeds, military desertion, corruption of the contracting process and any other activities that could undermine the U.S. Air Force or Department of Defense, according to the office’s website.
“Since this is anopen and ongoing fraud investigation at this time, no investigative details are releasable at this time,” Linda Card, chief public affairs officer for AFOSI said via email.
In 2015, a federal investigation came to light ofWSU’s potential misuse of the federal H-1B work visa program, which led to four administrators being suspended; two remain on paid leave.
This newspaper revealed that Wright State sponsored 19 foreign workers who came to the U.S.
to work at an area information technology staffingcompany that paid the workers less than what local graduates typically make for similar IT work.
Immigration experts say it’s possible the arrangement violated immigration laws designed to prevent staffing agencies fromtrafficking in cheap labor from overseas.
In April, WSU trustees asked the university’s attorney tomake referrals for further investigations out of “an abundance of caution,” said Doug Fecher, chairman ofWSU’s board of trustees. Fecher said that the probe by the AFOSI is just another result of those referrals.