Illinois Man STAGED Hundreds Of Robberies As FBI EXPOSES $3M Fake Victim Visas & Gets 2 Years

A suburban Chicago man organized hundreds of staged armed robberies so his customers could pose as crime victims and apply for U visas, special visas meant for immigrants who are victims of serious crimes. Then one of the fake robberies went wrong, and a store employee was shot.

According to federal prosecutors, Parth Nayi, 29, of Woodridge, Illinois, ran the scheme from 2022 to 2024. He scouted stores, paid owners to let robberies happen inside, recruited fake robbers, and coached fake victims. Each person paid $5,000 to $30,000. The robberies hit coffee shops, restaurants, liquor stores and gas stations around Chicago, and reached Louisiana and Tennessee.

On July 13, 2023, during a staged robbery at Bucktown Food & Liquor in Chicago, one of the robbers fired his gun and hit a 26-year-old employee in the abdomen. The employee survived.

On October 22, 2026, U.S. District Judge Mary Rowland sentenced Nayi to 2 years in federal prison and a $50,000 fine. She called him the "puppeteer" of the operation and said the sentencing guidelines were "woefully inadequate." Five other people have been convicted in the investigation.

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