Infosys a little too ‘paperless’ for NY, pays $1M

Indian outsourcing giant Infosys agreed to pay $1 million to settle claims that it placed foreign workers in jobs in New York without obtaining proper visas or paying high enough wages or taxes for their work, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said Friday.

The Bangalore-based company previously had paid $34 million to settle allegations brought by the US Department of Justice that Infosys systematically abused visa regulations by bringing foreign workers into the country on parttime travel visas, rather than standard H-1B work visas, in 2010 and 2011.

New York pursued Infosys for allegedly depriving the state of taxes it would have collected had the company paid higher wages to foreign workers, a spokesman for Schneiderman said.

In a statement, Infosys said it committed no wrongdoing and denies all the allegations brought by Schneiderman.

“Infosys maintains robust policies and procedures to ensure adherence with all applicable regulations and laws,” the company maintained.

The settlement comes amid growing scrutiny of Indian tech firms for their heavy use of the H-1B visa program for highly skilled foreign workers.

President Trump has criticized the practices of firms like Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services, the two largest Indian IT services firms by revenue, arguing that the tens of thousands of workers they send to the US every year could be taking jobs away from Americans.