“Passport” by sean hobson, CC BY 2.0

New Jersey staffing firm owner exploited the system for profit by filing fraudulent petitions with forged documents for nonexistent jobs, lied under oath to become a citizen anyway.

The Department of Justice, under President Trump’s leadership, has filed a civil complaint to revoke the naturalized U.S. citizenship of Neeraj Sharma, the former CEO and owner of Magnavision LLC, an IT staffing and consulting company based in Somerset, New Jersey.

Sharma, 50, an Indian-born national, is one of 17 naturalized citizens targeted in a sweeping denaturalization effort against fraudsters, sex offenders, drug dealers, and other criminals who lied their way into American citizenship.

According to the DOJ complaint and press release, between April 25, 2015, and April 27, 2017, Sharma, as CEO of Magnavision, signed and filed eleven fraudulent H-1B visa petitions with USCIS under penalty of perjury.

Each petition falsely claimed that the foreign IT workers had secured full-time positions at a major national bank. The filings included forged letters on the bank’s official letterhead complete with forged signatures of bank executives.

Sharma knew the documents were fake. He had never actually secured real jobs for the beneficiaries at the bank. Instead, he leveraged his own role as a contracted business analyst at the bank to manufacture the fraudulent sponsorship claims.

This was a classic exploitation of the H-1B program, intended for genuine specialty occupations and skilled talent, turned into a profit-driven scam. Sharma profited by recruiting foreign nationals desperate for U.S. visas and selling them the illusion of legitimate sponsorship through his staffing firm.

Sharma became a U.S. permanent resident in 2012. In April 2017, right in the middle of his fraudulent H-1B scheme, he filed his Application for Naturalization. Under penalty of perjury, and later in sworn testimony during his naturalization interview, he answered “NO” to key questions:

Had he ever committed a crime or offense for which he was not arrested?

Had he ever given false, fraudulent, or misleading information or documentation to U.S. government officials?

Had he ever lied to U.S. government officials to gain immigration benefits?

All lies. USCIS approved his application, and he took the oath of allegiance and became a U.S. citizen on December 7, 2017.

In 2019, Sharma was arrested and charged with visa fraud and naturalization fraud. He later pleaded guilty to Fraud and Misuse of Visas (18 U.S.C. § 1546) and was sentenced in 2021 to ten months of home detention plus three years of probation.

But he kept his citizenship until now.

On June 8, 2026, the Justice Department announced it is moving to strip Sharma’s citizenship under 8 U.S.C. § 1451(a), arguing his naturalization was illegally procured through concealment of material facts, willful misrepresentation, false testimony, and lack of good moral character during the statutory period.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche stated:

“When criminal aliens exploit the naturalization process by breaking the law, there are consequences. Criminal aliens are lying about their past crimes, including drug dealers, sexual predators, and fraudsters. Gaining U.S. citizenship is a privilege and under the steadfast leadership of President Trump, this Department of Justice maintains a zero-tolerance policy for the abuse of this process.”

DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin added:

“American citizenship is a privilege, and it must be earned honestly. If you come here, break our laws, and lie in your immigration proceedings, you forfeit that privilege.”

This case is part of a broader Trump administration push that includes denaturalization actions against a range of criminals who gamed the system. It stands in stark contrast to the lax enforcement and deprioritization of immigration fraud cases seen in prior years.

Jim Hᴏft Jim Hᴏft is the founder and editor of The Gateway Pundit, one of the top conservative news outlets in America. Jim was awarded the Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Award in 2013 and is the proud recipient of the Breitbart Award for Excellence in Online Journalism from the Americans for Prosperity Foundation in May 2016.

You can email Jim Hᴏft here, and read more of Jim Hᴏft's articles here.

Ad block users: Some site features may not work correctly while an ad blocker is enabled, because they break scripts and content this website depends on. If you can't see comments below, for example, please disable your ad blocker.