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A federal judge threw the book at Subhakar "Sam" Surapaneni on Thursday for bringing $49,000 into the United States illegally in November 1997.
Surapaneni's six-month prison sentence came despite the fact that Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth Chadwell and Peter Tangalos, attorney for a group of Indian nationals allegedly harmed by visa fraud at Surapaneni's Quality Information Systems Inc., joined Surapaneni attorney Richard Zuckerman in a plea for leniency.
The reason for those pleas? A deal for restitution to the Indian nationals hasn't been worked out. Both Zuckerman and Chadwell told Friedman that if Surapaneni were jailed for any length of time, QIS would close, jeopardizing the $600,000 in restitution Tangalos contends his clients are owed.
Chadwell argued that people bringing money into or out of Detroit gained from illegal activities such as prostitution have avoided jail time. Chadwell also said he believed many of Surapaneni's legal problems were "just youthful bungling. ... I think a lot of it was that he simply didn't know what he was doing." Surapaneni is only 28 and was only 26 when the visa fraud occurred, Chadwell said. Chadwell even pointed out that Surapaneni is sole support for his wife and two young children.
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